Kendall Reagan Nutrition Center Global Cuisine Blog: Caribbean Cuisine

By Bailey Carr, Culinary Dietitian

How do you find inspiration for deciding what to eat? Do you stick with familiar staples, or look to shake things up with diverse flavors and recipes? Whether you feel like you’re in a mealtime rut, or are looking to expand your working knowledge of spice and ingredient pairings, our new blog series is for you. Welcome to our dive into global cuisines, where we will explore the history, flavor staples, and nutrition benefits found across culinary cultures. First up: Caribbean cuisine.

History of Caribbean Cuisine

If you were playing a game of trivia and had to come up with one food representative of Caribbean cuisine, what would you answer? Jerk chicken? Fried plantains? A pina colada? In this theoretical game of trivia, this is a trick question, there is no top answer. Caribbean food lacks a singular dish that serves as an ambassador of the cuisine because the category of Caribbean food is an umbrella term. Caribbean food has endless subgroups and variations beneath it. To better understand the full gamut of Caribbean food, let’s briefly discuss the geography and history of the region.

The Caribbean region refers to the countries and almost 700 islands that frame the Caribbean Sea.  While all have a tropical climate in common, each island has unique agricultural practices, indigenous food history, and external food influences that show up in its signature fare. Let’s take a look at a few islands’ popular entrees to see how this plays out:

• Puerto Rico: Arroz con Gandules (rice with pigeon peas)
• Jamaica: Ackee and Saltfish (sautéed tropical fruit with salted cod)
• Trinidad and Tobago: Crab and Callaloo (crab and coconut milk stew)
• Haiti: Soup Joumou (squash and beef soup)
• Barbados: Flying Fish and Cou Cou (steamed fish with lime and a cornmeal-okra porridge)
• Grenada: Oil Down (one-pot stew made with chicken, vegetables, dumplings, and coconut milk)
• Venezuela: Pabellon Criollo (shredded beef with rice, black beans, and plantains)

Are you ready to give any of these recipes a go? Or does this feel like an overwhelming place to start when trying to weave a new cuisine into weeknight meals? Regardless of where you find yourself, the best way to get oriented with a new cuisine is to understand its foundational ingredients and cooking techniques.

What are the Classic Foods, Flavors, and Cooking Techniques of Caribbean Food?

Staple Ingredients:

• Spices/ flavorings/ condiments: allspice, nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, curry, bay leaf, dried hot peppers, soy sauce, bitter cassava juice, garlic, onion, hot sauce
• Herbs: scallions, cilantro, dill
• Vegetables: hot peppers, tomatoes, bell peppers, squash, pumpkin, spinach, taro leaves, cucumber, chayote, string beans, eggplant, radish, hearts of palm
• Grains and starchy vegetables: rice, corn, roti flat breads, cassava, potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, taro root
• Fruits: citrus (lemons, limes, oranges), tropical fruits (guava, pineapple, mango, breadfruit, ackee), coconut, bananas, plantains, pawpaw, plum
• Proteins: fish and shellfish, chicken, beef, pork, goat, lamb, kidney beans, cow peas, black eyes peas, pigeon peas, yogurt, oxtail, organ meat
• Fats: coconut milk, ghee, avocado, peanuts, cashews, pumpkin seeds

Staple Cooking Methods:

• Grilling – using grates over an open flame to cook
• Smoking- using smoldering wood, especially pimento wood (the branches of an allspice tree) in Jamaica to make dishes such as Jerk chicken
• Steaming- some Caribbean dishes are steamed in leaves from banana trees or taro roots to keep the food moist and impart subtle flavor, steaming is also used to create many rice dishes
• Stewing- low and slow cooking used to break down tougher cuts of meat in a flavorful liquid that often contains citrus juice, spices, and/or coconut milk
• Braising- browning meat before cooking low and slow in a flavorful liquid (see above) to create a tender end product

What are the Health Benefits of Caribbean Food?

The health benefits of Caribbean food are just as expansive as the variety of the cuisine itself. The Caribbean dietary pattern is similar to the well-studied Mediterranean Diet in its emphasis on anti-inflammatory foods. The Caribbean diet pattern is rich in fruits, vegetables, and herbs with vibrant colors that contain vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that reduce inflammation and risk of chronic disease. The cuisine contains many lean protein options from animal sources, but also supports a diet rich in seafood, beans and legumes that align with pescatarian, vegetarian, or vegan preferences. One of the unique benefits of Caribbean cuisine is its emphasis on using spices such as bay leaves, ginger, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg in both sweet and savory dishes. These spices all have properties with multiple benefits such as reducing inflammation and promoting optimal digestion. One of the best ways to access these benefits is to eat a whole food diet consistently prepared with these flavorful additions.

How Do I Get Started Cooking Caribbean?

• Try our recipe of the month for Caribbean Rice and Peas
• Dress up a traditional tomato soup recipe with coconut milk in place of dairy milk, fresh ginger added in with the garlic and onion, and cilantro, scallion and thyme to taste in place of basil and Italian herbs. Add a scotch bonnet or habanero pepper to the mix if you like spice!
• Create a Jerk spice blend to keep on hand made of 1 teaspoon dried thyme + 1 teaspoon garlic powder + ½ teaspoon onion powder + 2 teaspoons ground ginger + 1 tablespoon ground allspice + ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg + ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon + 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• Use coconut milk as the cooking liquid for rice and other grains. Also consider adding in a bay leaf, knob of ginger, and/or a lime wedge to the pot of grains and liquid to serve as flavor infusers as the grains cook. Remove before serving

Back to our theoretical game of trivia. Now what do you now think of when you hear the phrase “Caribbean food?” And most importantly, how will you start to incorporate Caribbean cooking practices in your home kitchen? Whether you decide to try out a traditional dish or start by adding more ginger and bay leaf to your meals, you are sure to enjoy both the flavor and health benefits this cuisine has to offer.

Looking for a hands-on Caribbean cooking experience? Check out our Caribbean Cooking Class taking place in Fort Collins on October 4^th.

About the Author

Bailey has been with the KRNC since July of 2023, and works primarily at the CSU Spur campus in Denver, CO. Learn more about Bailey’s culinary dietitian background and training in her KRNC Bio.

More Information

For additional resources for healthy eating, check out these programs from our registered dietitian nutritionists. Find delicious and healthy recipes on our Recipes page! More health tips are also available at the College of Health and Human Sciences Pinterest board. Lastly, don’t forget to sign up for the KRNC monthly newsletter!