New Cookbook Reveals the Secrets of Trinidadian Doubles and Vegan Caribbean Dishes

A new cookbook offers a detailed guide to making Trinidadian doubles, a popular street food. The dish consists of two flat fritters filled with a spicy chickpea stew. The recipe is part of a larger collection of Caribbean vegan dishes. Doubles start with bara, flat and fluffy fritters made from a dough of unbleached all-purpose flour, yellow split pea flour, baking powder, curry powder, cumin, salt, and yeast. The dough is fried in oil for 5 seconds on one side, 10 seconds on the other, then 5 seconds more on the first side.

The filling is a hot chickpea stew made with chickpeas, onion, garlic, curry powder, cumin, turmeric, and water. To assemble, two bara are placed on waxed paper, topped with the stew, and wrapped tightly.

The book Caribbean Vegan by Taymer Mason includes this recipe among over 200 others. It also features dishes like Caribbean Island 'Burger', Authentic Caribbean Rum Cake, and Classic Barbadian Sweet Potato Pie. Another recipe in the book is Bajan Pepper Sauce, a hot sauce made from fresh turmeric, mustard, Scotch bonnet peppers, onion, garlic, vinegar, salt, and brown sugar. This sauce yields 1 cup and can be stored in the fridge for up to a year. The cookbook provides step-by-step instructions for traditional Caribbean dishes. It highlights the variety of flavours and techniques in vegan Caribbean cooking. Doubles and Bajan Pepper Sauce are just two of the many recipes available in the collection.