Carrot Lox

from Sweet Spot Cafe in Harbour Island

As I mentioned in my Harbour Island guide last week, a highlight of our time on the island was stopping at Sweet Spot Cafe, a petite vegan cafe that excels in their offerings. (Including the best Pina Colada I’ve ever had.)

The cafe was founded by two sisters, Charlotte and Anna, born in Germany and raised in Austria. They moved to Harbour Island in 2008 after moving back and forth throughout their teenage years. While Anna had worked in hotel management and some small kitchens, the sisters are more or less self trained.

The shop is eleven years old, starting out as a smoothie bar with homemade ice cream and candies. It’s been fully vegan for the past six years.

A very bad photo of a very good dish.

I was particularly taken with their carrot lox - a riff on the NYC favorite, swapping out a very convincing carrot preparation for salmon, and a homemade cashew cream in lieu of cream cheese. The whole thing is dotted with capers and chives - and we ate it several times during our stay. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, so I reached out to the sisters to ask if they’d be willing to share the recipe for the carrots, and they were.

Carrot Lox

1 lb shaved carrot slices (with veggie peeler)

1/4 cup liquid aminos

1 tsp Wakame flakes

1 tsp Dulse flakes

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp liquid smoke

Preheat oven to 385.

Mix all ingredients (with carrots) and place into baking container with lid, or sealed with aluminum foil. Bake for 20 minutes, until carrots are soft.

Refrigerate overnight to let the flavors marry.

To serve, toast a bagel in olive oil, spread with cream cheese (or almond cream cheese from Kite Hill), top with the vegan lox and finish with chives and capers.