Every now and then, I come across a cookbook whose recipes are so compelling I have a tough time choosing what to test first. That’s what happened when I saw Craig and Shaun McAnuff’s “Natural Flava,” a vegan follow-up to their 2019 book, “Original Flava.”

Like that book, this one is inspired by their 2018 trip to Jamaica, a couple years after they started making online videos of their Caribbean recipes. The brothers, who are of Jamaican descent, were raised in south London and have long wanted to demystify Caribbean cooking, busting the myths that its recipes are complicated and meat heavy. And they do so with a heaping portion of charm; one of the most delightful parts of their book is their sprinkling in of such terms of “likkle” for “little,” bringing their voices to life.

“Everybody thinks Caribbean food is about jerk, jerk chicken or barbecue chicken,” Craig, 32, said in a Zoom interview. “But people are more open to Caribbean food now. The jerk chicken is so good, they want to know about everything else. And as time goes on, people are more open, and there are so many more vegan options growing year by year.”

The brothers also make sure to emphasize that they want everyone to enjoy their book, no matter their dietary preferences. After all, while Shaun, 35, spent a year eating exclusively vegan food (and boasts that he saw improvements in his weight and skin as a result), they are both flexitarians now.

“This book is not just for plant-based eaters,” Shaun says. “It’s important for meat eaters to have balance, too.”

One of their uncles is a Rastafarian, herbalist and healer in Jamaica, and they were inspired in part by Rastafarian Ital diet, which proves that the nation has a long, authentic tradition of vegan cooking. But that doesn’t mean that “Natural Flava” limits itself to such recipes. Instead, I view it in the same vein as such recent cookbooks as “The Korean Vegan” and “Provecho,” both of which give respect to the plant-based underpinnings of a cuisine (Korean and Colombian, respectively), while not being afraid to also offer vegan spins that keep to the spirit, if not the letter, of tradition.

In “Natural Flava,” that combination is part of what made it so difficult for me to choose a recipe. Would it be Rasta pumpkin pasta? Jerk tofu? A cauliflower burger with spicy mayo, slaw and mango chutney? I settled on these curried chickpea plantain boats because I love all the ingredients separately and had little doubt that once they came together, I’d love them all the more.

These are somewhat of a mash-up between Puerto-Rican-style canoas de platanos, sweet plantains typically stuffed with seasoned meat or seafood, and a chickpea-plantain curry the brothers included in “Original Flava.” You heavily coat ripe plantains — nothing green, please — in seasoning, and while they’re roasting, you make a quick curry from Caribbean curry powder, coconut milk, aromatics (garlic, onion, ginger) and chickpeas. When the plantains emerge from the oven, you push them open a bit (like a baked potato) to make room for the chickpea mixture.

When I did all that then stuck in a fork and took a bite, the layers of sweet and spicy, creamy and starchy made it clear: I needed more, and not just a likkle.

*washingtonpost