Vegan Duff!

One of the reasons I am enjoying this culinary experience as a vegan is because it forces me to step outside of my cooking comfort zone at times in an effort to not get bored with my food and show others that choosing to remove animal products from one’s diet doesn’t mean you’ll spend your days just eating lettuce and carrots. It’s actually far from that, although from time to time I do enjoy a simple bowl of lettuce. But anyway, next to rum cake, guava duff is an iconic dessert in Bahamian dishes. It is not for the dieter or the weight watcher because the sauce alone has sugar in three forms and lots of butter.

Learning how to make it was a personal culinary accomplishment because it’s not as simple as baking a cake and whipping up a sauce. I also believe that all Bahamians should work towards keeping our heritage alive through food and passing down these traditional dishes. Only since being away at school have I ventured into making it myself. When I visited home during breaks, one of my food quests always involved finding guava duff that was reminiscent of the ones older people I grew up around  made. Here is more about my other duff adventures.

So, since being here I’ve made guava duff for the international food festival to sell and I’ve made it for personal enjoyment and the feedback I’ve gotten is that it’s really good. Sometimes it’s hard to find guavas though. I go into the food store and I have to start off by explaining what a guava is.

There are pink guavas and white guavas. In The Bahamas they’re sold canned with no seeds in syrup. They also grow in people’s backyards. Here, I’ve been able to find them a few times in the Hispanic food aisles.

One of my concerns with making the duff has been the lack of eggs in the dough. I know there are egg replacements out there but the one that I bought (literally called Egg Replacer) is a hit and miss. To me it just seems like adding a slushy starch to an already starchy item wouldn’t work.

In the first two duffs, I made them the traditional way of boiling them. The result was a dense dough. The other two I baked in a water bath and the results were much better. They turned out the way a typical non-vegan duff turns out when I boil it. I think it was due to it not having eggs in it but I could be wrong.

Here is the recipe that I used. I simply swapped out items for non

Amy’s Soup

I did some shopping this weekend and I found a canned soup to try. I figured, hey, the ingredients look legit so I went for it.

Ingredients: 0g Trans Fat/No Added MSG/No Preservatives (Vegan) Filtered water, organic lentils, organic celery, organic carrots, organic onions, organic potatoes, organic extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, bay leaves. 

I’ve never had a lentil soup before and when I poured it into the bowl, it was not visually appealing. But I know I’ve prepared some dishes that weren’t the cutest so I didn’t let looks deter me. Popped in the microwave and proceeded to taste. For my liking, I added a teaspoon of sea salt to it. This helped the flavors pop tremendously. I know it says reduced sodium on the label so I should have anticipated that. Based on the ingredients I do see this as a soup I’m willing to attempt and make on my own. It was also $2 each (on sale) so in my book not too friendly for my  budget.

I went to Amy’s website and I like it. It has a symbols key which lets you know if a product is vegan friendly, gluten free, soy free and more which is helpful if you’re new to reading labels or just want to verify that a product meats your dietary restrictions.

It is definitely one I would buy again if I got too lazy to cook.

No Turning Back! Just kidding!

So YouTube determined from previous videos I’ve watched that I’d be interested in seeing why some long-term vegans have abandoned their no meat eating ways and have gone back to chomping on chicken. One guy (a doctor) who had been vegan for 15 years said he started eating meat again because while on a 10-day fast, about half way through he had a dream about eating fish….Um, alrighty then. I dream about food all the time. Earlier in the year I used to dream about chicken. But anyway.

I then went to a Google search which produced results that said about 84% of vegetarians go back to eating meat while 70% of vegans do. The Psychology Today article went on to share other statistics including 43% of persons who were no longer vegetarian or vegan said that they found it hard to stay “pure” with their diet.

I thought the findings of this study were interesting because it seems like a high number of people go back to eating meat. They did say that if persons whose reasons for not eating meat were due to taste, care for animals or religious beliefs were less likely to revert back than people who did so for diet reasons. This rings true for me because I’m still lowkey counting down to the day I can have some sheep tongue souse and and some stew fish and conch.

With any lifestyle change it takes self-discipline and will power. If you believe in the reason for your choices then you should stick with it.

All Things Considered

I took a little break from posts because I was compiling data and also enjoying time with my fiancé back home. Although short, I enjoyed the break and it have me a glimpse into what vegan life on this particular island would be like. My initial thought is that it will be more expansive than where I’m living now for several reasons:
1) I’d be cooking for two persons.
2) The cost of living in the Caribbean islands is higher due to heavy importing of foods.
3) My fiancé never has food in the house so I have to buy more basics that I would typically have on hand like seasonings, sauces, rice…

At the start of this trip there were a series of unfortunate events so I wasn’t too heavily concerned with food and sticking to the restrictions. With bare cupboards my first dish was what I thought to be the lesser of two evils: peas soup and dough. I figured, with just one faulty ingredient (meat) it’d be better than 4 or 5 in a fish dinner of peas n rice, fried fish and potato salad.

Once we were able to get to the food store, I was happy enough and just bought a few items for a few days since I was originally only to be there for 7 days instead of 9.

So if you see, the prices aren’t super bad but when you’ve gotten accustomed to paying 99¢ for a jar of spaghetti sauce, it hurts my hungry little heart to pay that much for it. I’ll probably make it from scratch from now on down there.
But anyway…

The variety of produce they have at the main food store in Exuma is fairly decent however as an island girl, being on an island with little to no native fruit growing wild is strange and absurd. In season now are hairy mangoes, sapodilla (aka dilly), and plums while sea grapes and avocados are gearing up to show their greatness. Meanwhile in Exuma, they have mangrove bushes and coco plums. Coco plums are alright but it’s like the only thing that grows! **Insert deep sighs and agonizing groans.**

These are two variety of coco plums.

All things considered, I was still able to make a few neat items and bake several dozens of bread. I’ll share those items in a separate post. The important thing to note is that being vegan on “the island” can be done.
I will be spending about a month home this summer so menu planning will be crucial to success and will include bringing a few items back with me in my luggage!

If you’ve traveled to a Caribbean island before, how was the dining experience for you as a vegan? Let me know if tips about successful vegan dining in the islands would be helpful!

The Way My Pizza is Set Up

A beauty in the making

My lid of veggies cut and ready.

Portabello mushrooms marinading in maple syrup, coconut oil and liquid smoke to make “bacon”

Brussel sprouts getting turnt up on the stove.

Brussel sprouts cooking down in balsamic vinegar.

The final result!

Pizza is bae! I love making veggie pizzas.

Island Eats

Here are some foods that I ate in the past weekish down in Exuma.

Sautéed chick peas with spicy zucchini and white rice with quinoa ini

Home made spaghetti with fresh baked bread (2nd attempt)

Burnt bread take 1. I had them on 450°F for too long.

Homemade bread (3rd batch) with fresh bruschetta

Stove top pizza which I did put in the oven to help cook the veggies a little more. It can still be done without a nonstick pan with a little alterations.

In between, there were days I ate leftovers and oatmeal in the middle of the day and baked sweet potato.

The first food item was the peas soup and dough I shared in the previous post, which can be made in vegan friendly form by the way.
Vegan eats on the island are possible if you don’t mind cooking.