Healthy Caribbean Recipes

This tropical dish is made complete with Jamaican Jerk Seasoning. Pork, rice, and beans combine with pineapple and red onion in a delicious honey-lime vinaigrette.

Arroz con pollo, or chicken cooked with rice, is a common dish in Spain, Latin America and the Caribbean. We use quick-cooking brown rice here to help you get this on the table in just 40 minutes. Serve with a mixed green salad tossed with cilantro-lime vinaigrette.

Shrimp and rice get a tropical makeover in this healthy 400-calorie dinner. Instead of rice, we've combined riced cauliflower and coconut milk for light coconut rice topped with spicy shrimp and a juicy mango-avocado salsa to cool it all down. Squeeze on some fresh lime juice before digging in to take this easy meal to the next level.

This easy fish recipe with a flavorful garlic, thyme and coconut sauce is perfect for a healthy weeknight dinner. Serve with brown rice, to soak up the creamy sauce, and a green salad with vinaigrette.

Picadillo, with its lively sweet-and-sour taste, is a classic Cuban dish that almost every family has a version of. It's traditionally made with ground beef, but because beef is expensive and in very short supply, Cubans use pork instead in this easy recipe. Picadillo is a great party dish, since it reheats well. Serve with rice or polenta.

For the best taste and color, use a red-fleshed Hawaiian papaya for this exotic, lip-puckering taste of island summer. Papayas are loaded with papain, a digestive enzyme, so this smoothie is a good dessert to settle stomachs after a substantial meal.

This simple vegetarian stew makes a hearty and inexpensive main course. It showcases fresh pigeon peas (gandules verdes), which are a staple in Puerto Rico. The small, round legume is similar in size to an English pea. Serve this with rice, tostones (fried plantains) or viandas (steamed or boiled root vegetables).

Jamaican jerk chicken is traditionally marinated at least overnight and then grilled low and slow for fall-apart tenderness. Here, we coat chicken in store-bought seasoning but cook it in a pan for a faster version. Searing pineapple caramelizes its natural sugars and releases some of its juices—making for a more flavorful salsa that plays beautifully with the seasoning on the chicken.

A Caribbean-inspired marinade for these chicken-and-pineapple kebabs is flavored with pineapple juice, soy sauce, plenty of spices and spiked with rum. It's moderately spicy from the use of jalapeño, but not nearly as spicy as the well-known jerk marinade, which uses the extremely hot Scotch bonnet chile. If spicy-hot is not your thing, leave the jalapeño out or use half. The creamy banana salad is a soothing counterpoint, but skip it if you like.

Every panaderia (bakery) in Puerto Rico has many flavors of flan, from vanilla to guava. Reduced-fat cream cheese gives this version a rich, comforting texture.

These burgers have a true crab flavor that isn't masked by fillers or strong seasoning. Serve on a bun with tartar sauce or with a lemon-juice-dressed salad of greens, sprouts and sliced peaches. This recipe works best with convenient pasteurized crabmeat, usually found in the refrigerated case near the fish counter. If you prefer lump crabmeat, cut it into small, uniform pieces.

In this island-inspired fish recipe, celery, bell pepper, tomatoes and wine complement the shrimp and fish. Serve this healthy fish recipe with brown rice, couscous or quinoa to soak up the fragrant sauce.

Mango, bell peppers, and black beans combine with whole-wheat couscous in this Caribbean-inspired grain salad. The ginger-lime dressing has a touch of cayenne pepper and provides just the right amount of zing!

This cake was inspired by the one of the most popular Jamaican desserts, sweet potato pudding. Traditionally, raw shredded sweet potatoes are used, but we found that sweet potatoes sold in the U.S. don't provide the same texture as those in Jamaica. Instead, we mix mashed sweet potato with eggs and flour to get a slightly different, but equally delicious, cheesecake-like result.

Coleslaw mix--a combination of shredded cabbage and carrots--makes this healthy lunch salad recipe quick to prepare. The coleslaw-bean mixture can also be used as a delicious taco topping.

Mango, banana and kale are blended with coconut water and protein-rich cottage cheese in this delicious smoothie recipe. Flaxseed gives this smoothie a boost of healthy omega-3 fats.

Tangy passion fruit pairs well with mango in this tropical-flavored smoothie.

Enjoy the refreshing and summery taste of ripened peach and zesty lime in this refreshing cocktail, with or without alcohol.

Guanimes are made with masa harina (corn flour), which you can find in most grocery stores. They are traditionally served alongside stewed salted codfish (bacalao); this vegetarian version features stewed eggplant and ajíes dulces, small peppers that resemble habaneros but are sweet, not hot.

Serve simple sautéed fish fillets with jalapeno-spiked pineapple salsa for a Caribbean-inspired meal. Serve with black beans and brown rice.

Savory, smoky and slightly sweet, these are great with roast pork loin, a hearty bowl of black bean soup or barbecued chicken legs and coleslaw. Dotted with creme fraiche, they make an exotic appetizer.

In this island-inspired whole-wheat banana bread recipe, coconut, brown sugar and ginger come together for a wonderful twist to make this our new favorite healthy quick bread.

Put away any preconceived notions of Grandma's fruit salad. This unusual combination of tropical fruit in a savory shallot vinaigrette will have you dreaming of the tropics.

Sofrito is a flavorful cooking base for all sorts of dishes. It has countless variations throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. This Puerto Rican sofrito contains tomatoes, onions, garlic, bell pepper and cilantro. Make a batch to use for flavoring rice, stews and much more. Try it in Mofongo Dressing for Thanksgiving (see Associated Recipes).