Callaloo soup recipe

A thick Saint Lucian Saturday soup of dasheen leaves swizzled with okra and salted pigtail until it holds together on its own.

13 hours and 25 minuteseasy10 ingredients

Ingredients

• 400 g dasheen leaves
• 150 g okra
• 300 g salted pigtail
• 400 ml coconut milk
• 1 onion
• 3 clove garlic
• 1 bunch thyme
• 1 scotch bonnet pepper
• 1000 ml water
• 1 tsp black pepper

How to make Callaloo soup

1. Soak 300 g of salted pigtail overnight, then boil it in fresh water for 30 minutes and throw that water away to draw off the salt.
2. Strip 400 g of dasheen (taro) leaves from their stalks, peel the stalks and chop both. Wear gloves, raw dasheen irritates the skin.
3. Return the pigtail to a pot with 1 litre of water, 1 chopped onion, 3 crushed garlic cloves and a bunch of thyme, and simmer 20 minutes.
4. Add the chopped dasheen leaves and 150 g of sliced okra and cook 25 minutes until everything collapses.
5. Pour in 400 ml of coconut milk and drop in 1 whole scotch bonnet. Leave it unbroken so it perfumes the pot without burning it.
6. Swizzle hard with a wooden swizzle stick, or use a stick blender, until the soup is thick and smooth. The okra is what gives that body, not flour or cream.
7. Lift the pepper out whole, grind in black pepper, and serve with rice, ground provisions or alongside a Saturday plate.

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