So I have been living and working on the island of Vanua Levu in Fiji for the past year. Fiji is blessed with some of the most fertile lands in the world we can grow pretty much anything, yet local culture does not have a huge variety of dishes that are cooked in the home on a daily basis.
This combination of things, plus my insane amount of free time has inspired me to make some vegan centric summer salad recipes. Enjoy
Sweet Karote
Simple salad that can be prepared the night before to bring for an awesome healthy lunch for school/work.
What you need
2 big carrots
1 pineapple
1/2 cup of raisins
Sprinkle of cinnamon
Sliced almonds or cashews are a nice add to if you have access to them
Step 1: cut the carrots up into toothpick sized sticks. (This takes a bit of effort but it’s worth it)
Step 2: cut up pinapple into average bite sized pieces
Step 3: with your hands mix everything into a big bowl. Making sure to squeeze the pineapple to get the juice out.
Step 4: let rest for ~6 hours. It can totally be eaten right away but I prefer to Let it sit so the juices and cinnamon flavors really get in everything (& of course Cover from the bugs).
What you need:
1 cup of dried chickpeas
4 tiny moli
1 tiny chilly
1 head of garlic
A hand full of cilantro
Sprinkle of cumin
Sprinkle of black pepper
Sprinkle of salt
Sprinkle of baking soda
Step 1: ~8 hours before you want to eat this, soak the dried chickpeas in water (you need about 2x water as you have chickpeas). Mix in a bit of baking soda to the soaking beans.
Step 2: rinse chickpeas. Then put chickpeas in a pot with another cup of water. (It should look like there is 2x the amount of water in the pot as chickpeas).
Step 3: mice garlic and add to the chickpeas.
Step 4: add the chili, cumin, and black pepper to the chickpeas. Bring mixture to a boil, then turn down to med/low heat. Leave covered on heat for about 15-20 minutes until all the water is gone and the chickpeas are soft. If the beans are not soft by the time the water is gone, add little more water and keep cooking.
Step 5: wait for the chickpeas to cool down. Then cut up the cilantro and add to the mix.
Step 6: squee the juice of the 4 moli onto the chickpeas and mix gently. Then add salt to taste.
more vegan island food coming soon :)
kana vaka levu
(eat very much)