Cookbook challenge: Jerk seitan and coconut rice

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When looking through Vegan With a Vengeance to choose recipes for the week, I handed it to Chadwiko for his input. Usually completely lost without accompanying photos, he surprised me by immediately choosing a recipe- jerk seitan. It wasn’t a recipe that had especially caught my eye before, but I figured I’d give in to Chadwiko’s constant demands for more seitan and give it a try.

Both he and I are glad that I did.

Jerk seitan

The recipe didn’t make excess sauce as it said it would, but this was so flavourful that it wasn’t needed. Jerk seasoning isn’t common here, so these were new flavours to us, and ones that we’re definitely keen to explore a bit more. As per the recommendation in the recipe, I made the Vegan With a Vengeance coconut rice to accompany the seitan.

Coconut rice

I love coconut rice, so I was surprised that I’d never tried this recipe before. I’m more familiar with nasi lemak, the Malaysian coconut rice dish, rather than this Caribbean version, so this may be why it was a little bit drier than I’d expected. But it was still delicious, and made a lot- a good thing in this case. The drier consistency was also great paired with the final part of this dish, the mango BBQ beans from Appetite for Reduction.

Mango BBQ beans

My copy of Appetite for Reduction only arrived last week, and flipping through it I knew that I’d have to try these beans as soon as possible. The onslaught of rave reviews parading themselves in front of me all over the internet had convinced me of that. I’m now pleased to be able to add myself to those vocal, pleased bean fans. These were unlike anything I’d ever tasted, in the best way possible. I was initially a little unsure, since the recipe called for ‘tomato sauce’, and I have no idea what Americans mean by that. I ended up using tomato paste and halving the amount, which seemed like a wise choice because these were glorious. They’ll be taking pride of place in our regular rotation.

This combination of recipes was a winner, so much so that Chadwiko said it just might be the best new thing we’ve tried during the cookbook challenge. But from a solid cookbook like Vegan With a Vengeance, who would have expected less?

2 Comment(s)

  1. This was absolutely delicious. From a quick google around the web, it looks like it’s a popular dish too.

    http://flamingotree.blogspot.com/2007/04/jerk-seitan.html

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    Chadwiko | Feb 3, 2011 | Reply

  2. after seeing this post yesterday, i realized that we had a bottle of jerk sauce in the cupboard, and since it was the 66th anniversary of bob marleys birthday i figured we might as well have jerk-chicken for dinner. what a great idea it was, such a flavourful meal accompanied by rice and green beans! thanks ‘wikos and bob marley :)

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    jesse.i. | Feb 8, 2011 | Reply

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