• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Supper in the Suburbs
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Recipes
  • Go Vegan!
  • Learn to Cook
  • Grow Your Own

subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • Recipes
  • Go Vegan!
  • Learn to Cook
  • Grow Your Own

×
Home » Meal Planning » Dinner

Jerk Tofu with Rice and Beans and a Watermelon Salsa

Published: Jan 3, 2021 · Modified: Jan 19, 2021 by Emma · This post may contain affiliate links · 1 Comment

  • Facebook
  • X
  • LinkedIn
  • Email

This delicious vegan dinner has everything you could want: spicy jerk tofu served with fluffy rice and beans and a cooling watermelon salsa. But best of all, it's quick and easy to cook. Get the recipe below.

Simple suppers

When I speak to people who are thinking about reducing the amount of meat they eat or moving to a plant based diet they are most worried about dinner time. It's quite easy coming up with light meals for lunch time, or making simple swaps at breakfast time. Dinner is a little trickier when most people are used to serving up carbohydrates, vegetables, and a big portion of protein (in the form of meat) on to their plate.

They are also often worried about having to buy in lots of expensive ingredients and unusual spices to help bring extra flavour to their plant based meals.

Both of these concerns are completely valid! My dinners look very different now to how they did when I ate meat but I'm still eating a nutritionally balanced plate of food and getting plenty of protein. It just doesn't look the same.

And yes, my spice cupboard is heaving now that I am vegan because ingredients like tofu do need a bit of extra help to turn them into something delicious. But, with just one shortcut ingredient, I'm going to show you that you can still cook fantastic meals that aren't all that different to their meaty counterpart, starting with this recipe for Jerk Tofu with rice and beans and a watermelon salsa.

Jerk Tofu with Rice and Beans and a Watermelon Salsa

Jerk tofu

If you're new to a vegan diet then you may still be a little unsure about tofu. And that's OK. If you'd prefer then you can swap it out for a chicken-like meat substitute but I much prefer to use tofu in this particular dish.

Make sure you choose firm or extra firm tofu for a good meaty bite. I've simply chopped mine up into cubes but if you find this looks less appetising you can simply break the tofu up into big chunks.

I fry the tofu separately to the onions and yellow pepper to make sure it gets extra crispy on the outside. Crowding it in a pan with the rest of the veggies would prevent this so don't skip this step, even if it means more washing up.

The shortcut in this recipe is that I've cheated and I use a store bought Jerk sauce! Shocking, I know. Can I even call myself a food blogger?! But that one shortcut means you don't end up with a cupboard full of spices you're only going to use once or twice a year. It also means dinner gets on to the table a lot quicker.

Rice and beans

The rice and beans require just 4 ingredients: kidney beans, rice, coconut milk and all spice. It might not be the most authentic recipe but it's the perfect simple side dish for the spicy jerk tofu.

The rice is cooked perfectly every time and the beans are perfectly tender. The coconut is slightly sweet and creamy which helps to cool down the heat of the scotch bonnet chilli in the jerk sauce.

Watermelon salsa

As good as the jerk tofu and rice and beans is, what takes this dinner from good to great is the watermelon salsa. Watermelon, cucumber, spring onions, mint and lime are combined to make a really bright and zesty salsa that helps to to cool down the heat of the jerk sauce and provide some extra fruity flavour!

Of course, if you're a real chilli fanatic you can add some fresh chilli to the salsa too.

Jerk Tofu with Rice and Beans and a Watermelon Salsa

The recipe

Jerk Tofu with Rice and Beans and a Watermelon Salsa

Jerk Tofu, Rice and Beans with Watermelon Salsa

Jerk Tofu, Rice and Beans with Watermelon Salsa is a fantastic meal for anyone new to a vegan diet. It's easy to make and packed full of flavour.
5 from 1 vote
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 30 minutes mins
Cook Time 30 minutes mins
Total Time 1 hour hr
Course Dinner
Cuisine Jamaican
Servings 4 people

Ingredients
  

For the salsa

  • 400 grams watermelon diced
  • 0.5 small cucumber diced
  • 2 spring onions thinly sliced
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 lime juice only
  • 5 leaves mint shredded

For the rice and peas

  • 150 grams white rice
  • 400 millilitres coconut milk
  • 1 tin kidney beans roughly 240g drained weight
  • 0.5 teaspoon all spice

For the jerk tofu

  • 280 grams firm tofu cut / torn into 1.5 inch pieces
  • 1 small red onion thinly sliced
  • 1 yellow pepper roughly chopped
  • 6-8 tablespoon jerk sauce

For serving

  • 2 tablespoon desiccated coconut optional

Instructions
 

To make the salsa

  • Add the watermelon, cucumber and spring onions to a bowl. Sprinkle over a little salt and pepper to season and place to one side to let the salt draw out some of the moisture.
  • Before serving, squeeze over the juice of the lime and stir through the mint leaves.

To make the rice and peas

  • Rinse the rise thoroughly before adding to a saucepan along with the coconut milk and all spice.
  • Slowly bring the coconut milk to a boil then cover and simmer for 5 minutes or until the rice is just becoming tender.
  • Add the kidney beans to the rice and give it a stir. Leave the lid on but place the heat on low to allow the rice to absorb the coconut milk.

To make the jerk tofu

  • While the rice is cooking, add the oil to a pan along with the onions and a pinch of salt.
  • Cook the onions for 10-15 minutes until they are soft and translucent.
  • Push the onions to one side of the pan and add another teaspoon of oil. Space the tofu out across the pan so that they aren't touching each other and fry on a medium-high heat.
  • Turn the tofu as each side turns golden brown and crisp.
  • Once the tofu is crispy combine with the softened onions and add the yellow pepper to the pan. Cook for 5-10 minutes or until the peppers are soft and the rice has absorbed all of the coconut milk.
  • Add the jerk sauce to the tofu, onion and pepper mixture and cook until hot.

To serve

  • Plate up the rice and beans followed by the jerk tofu and finally the watermelon salsa!
  • Garnish with some desiccated coconut if you wish!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

More vegan recipes

If you like this then why not check out more of my vegan recipes.

Tips for going vegan

If you're new to a plant based diet then check out my ten top tips for going vegan!

More Dinner

  • A baked Vegan Spiral Spanakopita on a plate on top of green and white napkins on a white marble counter top
    Vegan Spiral Spanakopita
  • A Vegan Grilled Vegetable Mille-Feuille topped with micro herbs, on a plate with an orange napkin
    Vegan Grilled Vegetable Mille-Feuille
  • A bowl of Vegan Tonkotsu Ramen topped with smoked tofu, shitake mushrooms, sweetcorn and spring onions
    Vegan Tonkotsu Ramen
  • Vegan Baked Gnocchi topped with basil and served on a blue plate
    Vegan Baked Gnocchi

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Faith says

    January 03, 2021 at 10:22 pm

    I’m going to make this next week!! But I think I’m going to swap out the watermelon salsa for a pineapple one because I’m not a fan of cucumbers. I am soooo excited to try this! Thank you x

    Reply
5 from 1 vote

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Welcome!

Hi, I'm Emma. I'm a UK based food blogger who's been sharing recipes with the world since 2011. I'm passionate about eating a plant based diet using local, seasonal ingredients.

More about me

Popular

  • Poached Rhubarb
    Poached Rhubarb
  • Delicate White Asparagus with Butter Vinaigrette-01
    White Asparagus with Butter Vinaigrette
  • Sautéed Tenderstem Broccoli with Lemon and Garlic
    Sautéed Tenderstem Broccoli with Lemon and Garlic
  • Mediterranean Lemon Roasted Vegetables
    Mediterranean Lemon Roasted Vegetables

Seasonal

  • A whole vegan cheesecake topped with blueberry compote
    Vegan Blueberry Cheesecake
  • Two Lavender Lemon and Prosecco Cocktails with slices of lemon
    Lavender, Lemon and Prosecco Cocktail
  • A stack of 6 vegan carrot cake pancakes topped with vegan cream cheese frosting and chopped pecan nuts.
    Vegan Carrot Cake Pancakes
  • Roasted broccoli and chickpea Caesar salad
    Roasted Broccoli and Chickpea Caesar Salad

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • About Me
  • Privacy Policy

Contact

  • Contact
  • Press Page

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Copyright © 2025 Supper In The Suburbs

Rate This Recipe

Your vote:




A rating is required
A name is required
An email is required

Recipe Ratings without Comment

Something went wrong. Please try again.