COPPERWhat is the national dish of Cabo Verde?
The national dish of Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) is cachupa, a slow-cooked stew of whole hominy corn and beans with pork, sausage, chicken or fish, plus cassava, sweet potato and cabbage. No law makes it official, but it is called the national dish everywhere. Each island has its own version, and leftovers are fried for breakfast as cachupa guisada.
What is cachupa?
Cachupa, katxupa in Cape Verdean Creole, is a stew of corn and beans. The corn is hominy: whole dried kernels, soaked and cooked until they split. Beans, root vegetables and greens go in, with fish or meat such as sausage, pork, beef, goat or chicken, and often morcela, a blood sausage.
Every island has its own regional version, and every family cooks it differently. English and French encyclopedia entries on Cape Verdean cuisine and island guides such as Sal Cabo Verde all call it the national dish, though no decree makes it official.
How cachupa is made
Cachupa starts the night before. Our cachupa recipe soaks 400 g of hominy, 200 g of kidney beans and 100 g of butter beans overnight in separate bowls. Whole hominy is essential: cornmeal makes a porridge, not cachupa.
The corn and beans are boiled hard for 10 minutes, since kidney beans must reach a full boil to be safe, then simmered for 2 to 3 hours until the kernels split and the broth turns creamy. Browned pork belly and chorizo go in for 45 minutes, then cassava and sweet potato, then cabbage, until the stew is thick enough to hold a spoon upright. Cape Verdean cooks count three to five hours in all.
It rests 15 minutes off the heat, and most households agree it is better the next day.
Cachupa rica, cachupa pobre and cachupa guisada
The name changes with what goes in the pot:
- Cachupa rica ("rich"): several meats such as pork, beef, sausage and chicken. It is kept for celebrations, Sundays and guests.
- Cachupa pobre ("poor"): a leaner version with fish, or with only hominy, beans, cassava, sweet potato and kale or cabbage.
- Cachupa guisada (also frita or refogada): yesterday's cachupa fried in a pan and served for breakfast with a fried egg and linguiça sausage or fried mackerel.
Where cachupa comes from
Cabo Verde was a Portuguese colony until 1975, and its islands have long faced drought and famine. Cachupa grew out of that scarcity: families relied on hominy, beans and root vegetables, adding meat or fish when they could. What goes in the pot is still read as a sign of how a household is doing, and cachupa rica has become an expensive dish for special occasions.
The stew travelled. It is one of the most popular dishes of São Tomé and Príncipe, where it is made with green beans, broad beans and corn, and Copper's Guinea-Bissau collection includes it too.
Other dishes to know from Cabo Verde
Fish matters as much as corn on the islands. Arroz de marisco is a soupy seafood rice built on a broth made from the shrimp heads and shells, finished with coriander and served with lemon and malagueta chilli. Pastel com diabo dentro, "pastry with the devil inside", is a turnover whose shell is mashed sweet potato and cornmeal, stuffed with tuna and malagueta.
Other names to know: caldo de peixe, a fish stew usually made with mackerel; búzio cabra, made from a sea snail, the bubonian conch; percebes, gooseneck barnacles; and grogue, the strong sugarcane rum of Santo Antão and Santiago.
Cabo Verde's cuisine draws on Portugal and on mainland West Africa. All three dishes are on our page about the food of Cabo Verde, and the mainland kitchens in our guide to West African food.
The recipes
- Catchupa🇨🇻 Cabo Verde · 16 hours and 30 minutes
Arroz de marisco🇨🇻 Cabo Verde · 1 hour and 15 minutes
Pastel com diabo dentro🇨🇻 Cabo Verde · 1 hour and 40 minutes
Questions people ask
Is cachupa the national dish of Cape Verde?
Yes. Cachupa is widely called the national dish of Cabo Verde (Cape Verde), although no law makes it official.
What is the difference between cachupa rica and cachupa pobre?
Cachupa rica contains several meats and is kept for celebrations; cachupa pobre is the everyday version, made with fish or with only corn, beans and vegetables.
What is cachupa guisada?
Leftover cachupa fried in a pan, usually eaten for breakfast with a fried egg and sausage or fried mackerel. It is also called cachupa frita or refogada.
Can you make cachupa with cornmeal?
No. Cachupa needs whole hominy kernels; cornmeal turns it into a porridge. Canned hominy works outside Cabo Verde, but the texture is not the same.
How do you pronounce cachupa?
In Portuguese it is close to "ka-SHOO-pa"; in Cape Verdean Creole, katxupa, it is "ka-CHOO-pa".
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