Rainbow ackee recipe
Chef: Elizabeth
Rainbow Ackee is a plant-based variation of the popular ‘ackee and saltfish’, cooked widely in Jamaica. Our Food Ambassador, Elizabeth, kicked off our Black History Month Community Cafe by bringing her Dad’s recipe to the kitchen to cook!
She shared that she wanted to make a dish with ackee as it’s an ingredient that many have heard of but lots have never tried. As a child, she’d confuse ackee for scrambled egg due to it’s texture – it’s actually a vegetable though and it’s delicious!
Ingredients
1 can of ackee
150g of oyster or chestnut mushrooms
2 yellow onions
3 spring onions
3 roma or plum tomatoes
2 bell peppers (any colours)
Garlic
A few sprigs of fresh thyme
1 scotch bonnet pepper
Vegetable or olive oil
Method
Chop the mushrooms, onions, scallions, bell peppers and tomatoes.
In a large frying pan, shallow fry the onions and garlic in the oil for 5 minutes, or until translucent.
Add the bell peppers, tomatoes and mushrooms and continue frying on a medium heat.
Drain the can of ackee and add to your frying pan with the fresh thyme.
Add the whole scotch bonnet pepper to the dish (chop this before adding if you’d like your food hot!) and cover with a lid to simmer on a low heat for 5-10 minutes.
Garnish your rainbow ackee with chopped spring onions. We served ours alongside coconut rice and Jamaican festivals. Enjoy!