conch(less) Salad
One of the perks of growing up in South Florida is that Bimini, Bahamas is just a hop, skip and a jump—just a quick 2.5 hour boat ride—away from home. 🌴 With a tropical paradise practically in our backyard, over the years we’ve spent a good amount of long weekends over in Bimini. 🌴 Every time we would go, we would never leave the island without having a bowl of conch salad—it’s a staple in the Bahamas. The last time we took a family trip over there, I had just recently started out on my vegan journey and wasn’t sure if I would bend to have a bowl of conch salad. After reflecting on the idea, I decided that I didn’t want to eat conch and that I wouldn’t even be missing the conch itself, just everything else that comes with a conch salad.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when I had a vegetable bowl full of multi-colored bell peppers, oranges and limes. I got a craving for conch salad. So I decided I was going to make a conch salad with everything but the conch. Initially, I hadn’t even planned on adding tofu to it, but I had a package of sesame-ginger baked tofu in the fridge that had been sitting there for a while and decided to throw it in since the texture of baked tofu is similar to the texture of raw conch. So if you’re ever in the mood for a conch salad, but you don’t want to eat any of those cute little sea creatures 🐚, here is the recipe for my fresh, citrusy and slightly spicy “conchless” salad—you can enjoy a taste of the Caribbean right at home! 🐠
| Servings | Prep Time | Cook Time | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 10 mins. | 0 mins. | 10 mins. |
Ingredients:
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 orange bell pepper
- 1 yellow bell pepper
- ½ a jalapeno
- ½ white onion
- Juice of 3 limes
- Juice of 1 navel orange
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 8 ounces baked tofu
Directions:
- Remove the stems, ribs and seeds from all 4 peppers. Then dice the bell peppers, the onion and the tofu into roughly ¼-inch uniform pieces.
- Mince the jalapeno.
- Combine the peppers, onions, tofu, lime juice and orange juice in a medium size mixing bowl and toss together until mixed.
- Let the salad marinate in the refrigerator for a couple of hours until cold. Serve and enjoy!
