This is a great, tasty and filling stew, from ‘Original Flava‘ by Craig and Shaun McAnuff. It is also vegan, and very tasty. We used tinned beans and tinned tomatoes, but you could use dried beans and fresh tomatoes. As usual, we had to substitute a few things to dried versions; you could use whole allspice berries, fresh thyme, or a scotch bonnet pepper, but these are not readily available.
The spinners are like long dumplings, but they should be very dense and quite chewy. There is more information about them here: https://www.thespruceeats.com/jamaican-spinners-recipe-2138153
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 cans of red kidney beans, or 500g dried beans soaked overnight
- 250ml water if using dried beans
- 4 cloves of garlic, crushed or finely chopped
- 2 heaped tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp ground allspice
- 2 spring onions, roughly chopped
- 1 level tsp salt
- 1 to 3 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 can of coconut milk
- 2 large waxy potatoes cut into 2cm cubes
- 400g butternut squash or sweet potato, or a mix of the two, peeled, deseeded and diced into 2cm chunks
- 3 large carrots, peeled and diced into 2cm chunks
- 1 can of tomatoes, or 4 large tomatoes, peeled and chopped
- 1/2 tsp scotch bonnet paste
- For the spinners: 250g plain flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 100ml water
METHOD:
- Soak the beans overnight if you are using dried beans. Drain and rinse the soaked beans and put in the pan with 250ml water, and bring to the boil.
- Add garlic, thyme, allspice, spring onions, salt, black pepper and coconut milk. If you are using tinned beans, use this as the base along with the water that is in the tins, rinse out with a little fresh water to get all of the flavour in. If using fresh beans you’ll need to simmer together for 30 minutes. Tinned beans won’t take so long.
- Once the beans are hot and tender, add a little more water if required, along with the potatoes, carrots, squash, tomatoes and scotch bonnet paste. Cover and simmer for another 30 minutes.
- While all of the simmering is going on, start making the spinners. Mix together the salt, flour and water, and make into a stiff dough, kneed this and let it sit for about 15 minutes, before rolling out to make spinners the shape of a pointy sausage, about the size of your little finger.
- The beans should be soft. Add a little water if needed, and put the spinners into the stew. Don’t worry too much about stirring them in; they are quite heavy and will tend to sink. Simmer for a further 15 minutes.
This is quite carb heavy, so we ate it on its own, but it is usually served with rice. It is good with a side dish of a green vegetable such as broccoli.