BECOME BEST SPUDS WITH DENAI.

Summer festivities are in full swing, and what better way to celebrate than to BYOS (Bring Your Own Side) to the next BBQ? To help with that, we hit up Denai Moore (she/her), artist and author of vegan Jamaican cookbook Plentiful, who began cooking to connect with the flavors from her childhood. “I grew up around such incredible cooks,” she says. “My mother makes the best fried dumplings, rice, and peas. I’m also attracted to food because of the way it brings people together. Before I officially started Dee’s Table, I would host all of these elaborate dinner parties, where I would decide what I was making on the day. I’m an extremely intuitive cook and I’m spurred on my cravings, food obsessions, and nostalgia.”

Before we get to those recipes, learn a little more about Denai and her roots below.

How have your Jamaican roots influenced your latest cookbook?
I was born in Jamaica and moved to London when I was just about to turn 10. The food I make is very reflective of my life journey. Plentiful honors all of my favorite foods from Jamaica, and is a snapshot of my childhood memories. My recipes are definitely not traditional, but I think it speaks to the modern day home cook who eats such a wide range of different cuisines daily.

Have you always been vegan? And does being vegan affect how you make traditional Jamaican dishes?
I’ve been vegan since 2015. One of the main reasons why I started writing recipes was to recreate the dishes I had growing up. Making vegan Jamaican food is actually so easy. There’s naturally a ton of Jamaican dishes that are vegan, and I grew up eating plant forward dishes.

When you’re not busy making delish dishes, what are you up to?
I’ve been making music all of my life and I’ve been writing this new record for a while now. Music has always been my first love, and I love that I have so many different eras ahead of me.

The Sides:

Potato salad can be a very sensitive topic. However, this is from my book and therefore you can’t judge me for what you’re about to read. I call this my dream potato salad because it involves lots of spring onions (aka scallions), raw mangetout (aka snow peas), and radishes for crunch. I opt for new potatoes because for me, potato salad season is a peak spring and summer dish, which happens to be the new potato season. This is far from a traditional potato salad, so potato salad traditionalists, look away now! The question is: Should a potato salad be mayo or oil based? The real answer is ackee curry mayo. Ackee’s wonderful smooth and silky texture really lends itself to creamy dressings like this. The curry flavor is perfect as potatoes can really take a lot of flavor. This would be a great salad for a barbecue. Please stand your corner on my behalf if anyone challenges you about your potato salad choices.
 

Carrots stand up well to quite aggressive spicing, and they really deepen in color and change texture when roasted. In this dish, I use my jerk seasoning, which is a wonderful blend of earthy spices. It’s lovely as a sweet glaze with the salty and creamy texture of the vegan feta cheese. I’m a big fan of sweet and salty flavors in the same dish!