Ital Jamaican Curry

Ital (pronounced Ai-taal) is a food philosophy followed by Rastafarian culture of Jamaica. It dictates that food should be eaten as acquired from the earth around you – unprocessed. Essentially, it constitutes a vegan, plant-based whole food cuisine.

This recipe is pretty simple, the biggest challenge is cutting the butternut squash. It’s also very good for meal prepping when packed over brown rice – since there is no dairy, it won’t go bad easily either.

As the Rasta people say: “Ital is Vital”

Ingredients:

• Jamaican Curry Powder
• 1 inch ginger grated, 2-3 cloves garlic, 1 Jalapeno diced (take out the seeds if you don’t want it too spicy)
• Butternut Squash (or any other type) – cubed and roasted
• Any other veggies you want – Broccoli, cauliflower, garbanzo beans, onions, carrots
  • I used a few heads of broccoli and 1/4 to 1/2 of a cauliflower
• 1 can of organic coconut milk (full fat or reduced fat if you want less calories but will compromise taste)

You can buy Jamaican curry spice at the store but I found it pretty easy to make at home and I was able to make extra to have as a staple to quickly meal prep in the future.

Making the curry powder:
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/197274/jamaican-curry-powder/

Making the curry:

1. Precook squash – butternut squash takes forever to cook so cut it into bite sized pieces (this is the hard part) then coat in olive oil and put on a pan in the oven until soft/cooked
   1. Forgot to take a pic of this part oops
2. First heat some coconut oil on the pan and then add the ginger, garlic, and pepper to cook.
3. After about 15-20 seconds add in the onion

• After the onion has cooked for about 1 minute – add in the rest of the vegetables
• Next add about 4 tablespoons of the curry spice mix – I honestly just estimated, you basically just want everything coated well – be generous with the spice mix because the coconut milk will dilute the flavor

• After the vegetables have cooked down – add in the pre-cooked squash followed by the coconut milk
  1. You can use the regular one for max flavor but if you’re trying to watch the calories you can get the reduced fat version.
• Add salt to taste if you haven’t yet

• Cook down until it all gels together and the consistency is good – remember it will thicken when it cools so you want it to be slightly watery when you turn the heat off.
• Done! Serve over brown rice and go eat!