Every weekend at the Natural Kitchen Cooking School, we have a guest chef to bring something fun, new and creative to the mix. During our January weekend, we had the pleasure of having NKCS graduate Nancy Street, of Hummingbird’s Kitchen, create fabulous Jamaican dishes for us. I was impressed and tantalized by her Ital Stew, which contained various spices, peppers, onions, coconut milk, potatoes, lima beans, peas, and spinners (dumplings). We were lucky enough to get the recipes for her Ital Stew and Jamaican Banana Pineapple Bundt cake. For part of my homework, I recreated the Ital Stew. It was quite spicy, but the spinners helped to stave off some of the heat. This is a stew I would make again in the future with a little less cayenne (although Mr. Tuxedo Cat loved it just the way it was).

Overall, I’d rate this dish as 4 out of 5 carrots on the veganlicious scale!