Jamaican Mix-Up Rice

If Jamaicans had their own version of fried rice…this would be it. And I don’t want to sway in my allegiance to greasy brown rice and undistinguishable veggies in a cardboard carton, but this was damn good. The recipe also made a TON, so I’m sure I’ll be eating it for the next three days.



The recipe came from Vegetarian Planet, and allowed for a bit of wiggle room. I decided to use carnival as the requested squash (the recipe called for pumpkin or butternut) and collards as the green. This also called for allspice, but since I only have whole allspice and I don’t have a spice grinder (or mortar and pestle for that matter) I decided to replace it with cloves and jerk seasoning. I’m not entirely sure why I picked up cloves from the spice rack, but I can tell you that I just figured jerk seasoning belonged in a Jamaican dish.

The jalapeno was optional in the recipe, but I’ve made my feelings on spice pretty clear….a whole pepper, seeds intact, joined the mix. I have to admit the best part of this was essentially the garnish. I fried up some sliced banana in oil and set that atop each serving. It added a sweet, uniquely textured element not otherwise present in the dish…I only wish I’d made more than two bananas worth, since I’ll have to make a new batch to adorn the leftovers.

I made more of the black bean burgers from V’con today too…as expected, they went great with the sundried tomato dip. They’ve had their photo ops though…so I didn’t bother.

Selah.