Ultimate Vegan Jamaican Beef Patties Recipe

Jamaican patties are a flaky yellow pastry folded around a spiced filling and baked until golden. The traditional version is filled with beef, so this is a plant-based take on it: curried chickpeas, quinoa, carrot and scotch bonnet stand in for the mince, and the crust still gets its colour from turmeric.

The patty is one of Jamaica’s most famous foods, sold from bakeries, shops and street counters across the island and anywhere the Jamaican diaspora has settled. This is not a novelty version of it. The pastry, the spicing and the shape all follow the original, and only the filling changes. If you’re after a meatier plant-based option, there are also beef patties elsewhere on the site.

What makes a Jamaican patty a Jamaican patty?

You might never have eaten a Jamaican beef patty, particularly not a plant-based one, though you have almost certainly eaten something related.

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Nearly every food culture has a pastry that is fried or baked and stuffed with something good, whether it is an empanada, a pastelito, a samosa or a Cornish pasty.

In Jamaican cooking it is the patty. The pastry is yellow because of turmeric, annatto or curry powder worked into the dough, depending on the baker, and the filling is traditionally seasoned beef with allspice, thyme and scotch bonnet.

Here the crust is an herb-infused, flaky pastry and the filling is curried chickpeas, quinoa, vegetables and nutritional yeast. It won’t fool anyone who grew up on the beef version, but it holds its own on the same terms: properly spiced, properly hot, and best eaten warm from the oven.

How do you make vegan Jamaican patties?

I’ve made these enough times to have worked out where they go wrong. A few things matter more than the rest.

Why make the filling first?

The dough is delicate, and the vegan butter in it has to stay cold for the layers to form. Getting the filling cooked and cooled before you touch the pastry means the dough spends the least possible time out of the fridge.

Does the type of flour matter?

The recipe below uses plain (all-purpose) flour, which works well. If you have pastry flour on hand, swapping out roughly a quarter of the plain flour for it gives a slightly finer, crisper outer layer. Either way, make sure the vegan butter is very cold and cut into even pieces.

Why measure the dough pieces?

Cutting the squares to a set size feels fussy, but cutting them by eye means mismatched tops and bottoms and a lot of wasted dough. Cut them into 3” by 4” (7.5 cm by 10 cm) rectangles and the tops always fit the bottoms.

Roll the pastry to about 3 mm thick. Any thinner and the filling breaks through; any thicker and the pastry stays doughy in the middle.

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List of Ingredients

For The Crust:

• Pinch of garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 Tbsp ground turmeric
• 3/4 cup (about 170 g) of vegan butter or buttery sticks
• 2 1/2 cups (about 375 g) organic all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (250 ml) Almond milk, Very COLD, plus 2 Tbsp

For The Filling:

• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1 tsp organic brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp minced ginger root
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp ground turmeric
• 1 tbsp grapeseed oil for cooking
• 1 tbsp red pepper flakes
• 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 scotch bonnet pepper, minced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 medium carrot, peeled + chopped
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1 cup (about 185 g) of quinoa, cooked
• 15 oz. (425 g) chickpeas (drained and rinsed)

Directions

Making The Crust:

1. Set aside the cool milk and apple cider vinegar in a measuring cup.
2. Whisk together all the flour, turmeric, parsley, thyme, salt, and garlic powder in a large mixing basin until well blended.
3. Blend the cubed vegan butter sticks (or normal vegan butter) into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender until the mixture is “peas-like” and clumpy.
4. Pour the chilled apple cider vinegar milk concoction over the dry ingredients and toss (mixing it together with one hand) til moist. Remember: If the ingredients are too dry, add 1 Tbsp cold water at a time until they are moist but not soggy.
5. Knead and roll the dough into a sphere, then cover it in cling wrap, and gently flatten it before chilling for at least 1 hour. Remember: The dough will have a light golden tinge to it. Once cooked, it will deepen and turn golden.

Making The Filling Mixture:

1. Pour in the oil to a medium skillet set over medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, add the onion and garlic and cook until aromatic and clear. Sauté the carrots and minced scotch bonnet peppers for 3-4 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft. Remove the pan from the heat.
2. Toss together the chickpeas, cooked quinoa, sautéed vegetables, and spices in a large mixing bowl.
3. With a pastry blender, mix all ingredients until they are crumbly and just hold together.

Assembling The Patties:

1. Turn the oven to 350°F (180°C) and cover a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
2. Retrieve the cold dough from the fridge and shape it into a big rectangle on a floured surface board (about 3 mm thick). Next, divide the dough into small-medium rectangles (3′′ broad by 4′′ long, or 7.5 cm by 10 cm) until all of it is gone.
3. Sparingly spread vegan butter on all rectangle edges to guarantee the best possible seal. Put 1 tbsp veggie filling on one cut dough piece; gently cover with another rectangle piece, then slowly push the edges down. Thoroughly pinch the edges with a fork and arrange them on the baking tray.
4. Continue until all of the patties are produced.
5. Once they’re all level on the sheet pan, use a fork to carefully poke a series of holes in the top layer.
6. Coat all of the patties well with melted vegan butter and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown, and check that the filling is cooked through.
7. Take them from the oven and put them aside to cool for a few minutes (about ten minutes).

FAQs

Why are Jamaican patties yellow?

The colour comes from the pastry rather than the filling. Most bakers work turmeric, annatto or curry powder into the dough, and some use a combination. This recipe uses turmeric in both the crust and the filling, which gives a deep golden colour once baked. The dough looks pale and slightly yellow before it goes in the oven and darkens as it cooks.

How spicy are they?

Fairly hot as written. There is a whole minced scotch bonnet in the filling plus a tablespoon of chilli flakes, which is a lot of heat for most people. Scotch bonnets vary enormously in strength, so start with half a pepper if you’re unsure, taste the filling once it’s cooked, and add more. Removing the seeds and membrane tones it down as well.

Can you freeze vegan Jamaican patties?

Yes, and they freeze better than most pastries. Freeze them unbaked on a tray until firm, then bag them, and bake straight from frozen with an extra five to ten minutes on the time. Baked patties also freeze for up to three months. Reheat them in a 180°C oven rather than a microwave, which turns the pastry soft.

Can you fry them instead of baking them?

You can, and some Jamaican bakeries do. The pastry here is built for the oven though, with cold vegan butter cut through the flour for flaky layers, and that structure holds up better baked than it does in hot oil. If you want to fry, use a hotter, less buttery dough and keep the oil at about 175°C.

Conclusion

That’s the whole recipe. If you have questions about it, or you want a substitute for anything in the list, leave a comment and I’ll help where I can. Thank you.

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• Vegan Jamaican Patty