February 17, 2012 | Soup
I just returned from sailing for a couple of weeks in the Caribbean with my husband and two other couples – to say it was spectacular would be an understatement. We traveled south through the Windward Islands, from St. Lucia all the way to Grenada, stopping at many islands along the way. From the very first place we went ashore I began seeing Callaloo Soup on the menu. Always intrigued to try what’s local to a region, I tried it – and I think at least one person in our group ordered it for every meal after that, it was that good.
The main star in Callaloo Soup is the callaloo, which can be misleading. Locals told us it was a local kind of spinach. Online research reveals that amaranth or other greens are used, sometimes water spinach, and that callaloo is the term used to mean any of these greens used in the soup. I also learned that the soup was a created by slaves brought to the Caribbean – they utilized the local greens and mixed them with okra – something borrowed from their African heritage – to make Callaloo Soup. We had it in both thicker and thinner varieties – locals sometimes use the thicker as a gravy of sorts. If you try to find Callaloo Soup recipes online you’ll find that many are not a pureed soup, but rather more like a stew that uses greens, in addition to lots of things you’d find in the Caribbean like lobster. Since we only ever saw it as a pureed soup, that’s what I created the very first day I was back. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as my friends and I did!
| Callaloo Soup |
|
Category: Soup
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 35 mins
Total Time: 45 mins
Serves: 8
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
- 2 small shallots, roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup celery leaves (optional)
- 4-6 cloves roasted garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
- 2 cans chicken or vegetable stock
- 1 can lite coconut milk
- 1 pound fresh spinach
- 8 ounces cut frozen okra
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon red chile flakes
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large stockpot over medium high heat and add onion and shallot; cook until slightly soft, about 5 minutes. Add celery (if using), garlic, ginger, stock, and coconut milk and stir together. Add spinach, okra, nutmeg, coriander, and chile flakes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 30-40 minutes. Puree with a stick blender or in a traditional blender and season with salt and pepper to taste.
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Hi Michele, welcome back! Sounds like a great route you sailed.
Where are the pictures? Thanks for a new soup recipe. I have never heard of Callaloo soup.
I’m with you, when in Rome . . . I always bring some culinary treasure back with me when I travel and a recipe or cookbook seems to always be the pick. Interesting combination of flavors here. I bet it is delicious.
The soup ingredients are delicious sounding Michele. Seems beautifully spicy and I love the color. Hoping it keeps your travel adventures feeling close as long as possible!
I’ve made more soups over the past couple of months; maybe it’s their ease of preparation that has me hooked but I’m also discovering new flavor combinations. This is an interesting one and I always love to know the history behind anything from another land. Sounds like you had a wonderful time.
What an absolutely delightful soup…fantastic flavors!
Oh yum, I’d love to try this soup recipe.
You are welcome to join in my food blogger event THE SOUP KITCHEN, here all bloggers are welcome, hope to see you participate soon.
So did you travel to my home country (St Vincent and the Grenadines too)? Must have been a lovely trip! St Lucia is our neighbor to the north and Grenada is our neighbor to the south!
I loveeeee callaloo soup but spinach and callaloo have nothing in common except their color (in my opinion). To me they taste completely different. Growing up we used dasheen bush for callaloo soup but I suppose different places use different things like you said and call it “callaloo”.
Your soup look wonderful and delicious!!
Yes Tia, we went all through the islands, stopping at St. Vincent and many of the small islands south of there – lovely place! I do know that callaloo and spinach aren’t the same thing, but upon alot of research decided that was the next best available thing to use – and it did seem that many cultures called soup callaloo using things like amaranth, taro, or xanthosoma – and that indeed they called it callaloo, coco, tannia, bhaaji, or dasheen bush. Having had the soup several places on the islands I must say that my version with spinach does taste very much the same as what we were served!