Jerk Mushrooms with Chickpeas
Chef: Marsha From: Caribbean Serves: 4
Time: 10 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking time
Ingredients
500g of mushrooms
1 yellow bell pepper
2 green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
2 garlic cloves
1 scotch bonnet pepper
2 large white Onion
1 red Onion
500g of fresh tomatoes
3 small Spring Onion or 1 large
300g of quinoa (can also use pasta or rice if preferred)
Large Thumb size piece of Fresh Ginger
Half-1 teaspoon of ground Pimento
1 teaspoon of onion powder
Fresh thyme
1 teaspoon of dry basil
1 tablespoon of dried or fresh dill
Half teaspoon course black pepper
1 large cube size piece of creamed coconut
Half a teaspoon of sea salt
1 Tin of Chickpeas or black eyed beans
Avocado/sesame or olive oil
We have just reached the end of another successful food ambassador programme. A big part of the programme involves participants sharing recipes from their cultures with one another. During our last session Marsha, showed the group how to make this jerk chickpea and mushroom dish. She says about the dish: ‘Growing up around Caribbean food and flavours helped me when I transitioned to a plantbased diet 6 years ago. There is no reason why you can’t jerk up vegetables and stews the same way as you would a meat dish. The scotch bonnet peppers is used a lot in Caribbean cooking to add deep flavour and a little heat’. Marsha will also be cooking this dish at Moorlands pantry as part of Black History Month.
Quinoa is a complete protein and contains all the 9 amino acids that the body needs to stay healthy. If you don’t like quinoa you can serve this with pasta or rice instead. We served this with boiled plantain as this was a healthier option to deep frying.
You can make the sauce (2nd step of this recipe) the night before and store in the fridge. The Jerk sauce will have more time to infuse and will give your mushrooms a delicious flavour.
Method
Wash and chop the mushrooms, 1 of the white onions, and all the bell peppers. set aside for later.
Add to your blender, the tomatoes, the other white onion, 1 scotch bonnet (without seeds) spring onion, ginger, juice of half a lime, half a teaspoon, of black pepper, 1 teaspoon of dry basil, 1 teaspoon of onion powder, half a teaspoon of ground pimento, half a teaspoon of sea or pink salt, and 4/5 sprigs of fresh thyme. Blend all the ingredients into a sauce and set aside for later.
Wash your quinoa and add it to a pot with some water. The water should sit half an inch above the quinoa. Add a little salt, black pepper, 1 cube size piece of creamed coconut and a teaspoon of dill. Allow the quinoa to boil for a minute or two with the lid off. Give the pot a good stir and turn it down low and allow it to simmer for 20min with the lid on tight. While the quinoa is cooking you can start to cook your mushrooms
Add 2 tablespoons of avocado oil (or other oil) to a hot pan and fry the chopped white onion from earlier (the bell peppers will be added at the end). Drain and wash the chickpeas. When the onions are soft add the chickpeas, half a teaspoon of dry basil, and half a teaspoon of onion powder. When the chickpeas start to brown you can add your chopped mushrooms. Once the mushrooms start to soften add your blended sauce.
After you have added the sauce, Place the lid on the pot and let the mushrooms and sauce cook on medium heat for 20 minutes. You can add a little water if the sauce is too thick. After 20 minutes add your chopped bell peppers and cook for a further 10 minutes.
Keep an eye on your quinoa and turn it off once it becomes fluffy and all the water has soaked up.
Once the dishes are cooked, serve the mushrooms on top of the quinoa with a healthy helping of salad on the side.