One Saturday morning in 2004, after 12 years as a vegetarian, I succumbed to the aroma of venison and bacon burgers at London’s Borough Market, and since then meat has remained on my agenda.

 

But I try as far as possible to source meat that was humanely raised and slaughtered. And I make sure to balance my diet by eating a number of protein sources, like fish, seafood and legumes.

 

It’s not difficult to eat less meat, especially in the Caribbean, where it’s easy to get fresh fruit and vegetables. Despite this, lots of people still say they don’t know how to make interesting vegetarian meals.

 

Help is at hand: one of the most exciting sources of vegetarian and vegan recipes in recent times has been the book Caribbean Vegan, by Barbadian food scientist Taymer Mason.

 

Mason, who now lives between St Martin and France, became a vegan almost six years ago. “After making and eating about four pork pies one day at work, I found myself sick of eating meat, and overnight went vegan. I was at a point in my life where I needed to change, and diet was the first step.”

 

In the Caribbean, the first kind of vegetarianism that comes to mind is the ital cookery made popular by Rastafarians, Mason noted.

 

“In many of the English-speaking Caribbean islands vegetarianism is accepted by many who see it as a healthier diet. Many may have tasted vegetarian food from Rastafarian establishments or other Caribbean vegetarian food establishments and liked it. Many Caribbean dishes are already vegetarian, like steamed pudding and pickle sans the pork, so it is not a foreign concept.

Try Taymer’s Eggplant and Seaweed Accras.

 

“After going vegan I had to learn new ways of cooking, like making my own protein sources for seitan, which is vital wheat gluten, and how to bake without eggs and dairy products, and that was a learning curve.

 

“After doing this I wanted to eat the same things I grew up eating in the Caribbean, like macaroni pie, Christmas ham, pudding and souse, coconut turnovers – so I decided to develop meatless Caribbean recipes for all of my favourite things. There was no book like it out there, so I knew I had to do it, and do it right.”

 

Caribbean Vegan has been well received. Popular Trinidadian food blogger Sarina Bland, aka Trinigourmet, wrote on the Amazon.com website: “This book successfully translates veganism into the Caribbean culinary vernacular. Clear instructions and pictorial guides will help even more seasoned cooks, and devotees of dishes that previously would have been off-limits, such as souse or black pudding, will be amazed at how effortlessly Mason is able to reproduce familiar meat-based tastes and textures using commonly available vegetables.”

 

Mason sought to dispel some of the more common myths about vegetarians and vegetarian cooking.

 

“People think we are all skinny, which is not true! We all have different body types, and one can make the wrong food choices as vegetarian and, by extension, vegan.”

 

Whether you are omnivorous or vegan, she said, it’s important to make the right food choices, like avoiding simple carbohydrates and sugar.

 

“They also believe that being vegetarian is a lot of work in the kitchen. But if you plan your time wisely – like soaking your beans in advance, or making a big pot of stew the night before – it is not very time-consuming.”

 

This article has previously appeared in Caribbean Beat Magazine.

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 19th, 2012 at 14:57 and is filed under Food Matters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.