A couple of weeks ago, I cooked my first Jamaican-inspired dish, Rasta pasta , and I've been thinking about those flavors ever since. Having grown up in Louisiana, I have a deep love for Cajun and Creole flavors, which often find their way into my cooking. There is a diaspora connection between Caribbean food and Cajun/Creole food, with some remarkable similarities in flavor profiles. To make Rasta pasta, I ordered Walkerwood Jamaican jerk seasoning, the go-to jerk seasoning in Jamaica. Now that I have a jar, I'm excited to explore more uses for it. So, I decided to try another Jamaican dish: rice and peas. In Jamaica, they call them peas, but they're the same red beans we use in Cajun and Creole dishes. The main difference is that the rice and beans are cooked together with coconut milk as a key ingredient. Through my Cajun/Creole lens, this dish reminds me of a combination of  Cajun/Creole red beans and rice and jambalaya , but with tropical flair from coconut milk. Full