Vegan Curry

By: Jackson Williams

Directions:

Step 1: Soak your chickpeas the night before.

Step 2: Cut up all of your vegetables.

Step 3: Add seasoning and garlic to the bottom of your pot with cooking oil.

Step 4: After, add your vegetables.

Step 5: As the vegetables start to cook, add your chickpeas and some water.

Step 6: Add more curry powder and add some coconut milk to make the curry thicker.

Step 7: Then let the curry boil down to stew.

Ingredients:

  • 1lb chickpeas

  • 1 onions

  • 1 green pepper

  • 1 red pepper

  • 1 yellow pepper

  • 3 stems fresh thyme

  • 1/5 scotch bonnet pepper

  • 2 cloves fresh crushed garlic

  • 1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

  • salt and pepper to taste

  • 2 tablespoons curry powder

  • cooking oil (Just to grease bottom of pot or pan)

  • 1/2 a cup coconut milk

History of Vegan Curry

Jamaica is one of the biggest islands in the Caribbean, approximately ninety miles south of Cuba. The long history of immigration adds to the culture. Just like any other country, Jamaica has dishes it is known for, one of those dishes is curry. Even though curry is such an important dish to Jamaica, it originated in India.

The arrival of curry in the Caribbean can be dated back to the early 1800s. Like in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica was a colony of Britain. When Britain abolished slavery in 1833 they freed over 800,000 African slaves. After the slaves were freed, they refused to work in the plantations. This left a hole in the Jamaican sugar industry. So, to replace the newly freed African slaves, they decided to bring indentured servants from India. Thirty-six thousand Indians ended up immigrating to Jamaica. When the Indians arrived, they brought with them their version of curry. Jamaica did not have the exact ingredients needed for Indian curry, but they had many indigenous spices. This led to a host of different curry cooking styles.

There are some obvious differences between curry from India and Jamaica. For example, curry in India has fewer spices than curry in Jamaica, though it still has all the flavor. Another noticeable difference is that Jamaican curry uses a lot of turmeric, unlike Indian curry. Jamaican curry is also very yellow due to the use of turmeric.

My mother has been making curry for awhile before she started to make Vegan Curry. She originally made vegan curry because my older sister, Briana, is Vegan. So, it was away for all of us to enjoy curry as a family, while meeting everybody's wants and needs.