This Soul-Soothing Beef and Lentil Soup is the kind of recipe that carries you through cold evenings, long weeks, and those moments when only a nourishing bowl of comfort will do. In many Caribbean homes, Saturday soup is more than a meal; it is tradition, therapy, and togetherness all in one pot. While this soup…
Regardless of which Caribbean island you call home or where you may originate, Saturday almost always meant one thing: soup. A big, thick, comforting pot bubbling away on the stove or over a wood fire, filling the air with familiar aromas. Even when temperatures climbed into the mid-30s Celsius, soup was still on the menu….
Over the years I’ve shared about 30 + Soup Recipes and to be honest and frank, I’ve barely touched the surface when it comes to Caribbean and Caribbean inspired soup recipes. Such is our love for soups throughout the Caribbean. While this one is not your typical thick and ‘stew’ like variety you’d normally enjoy…
This is as classic a Caribbean soup can get, as it’s loosely based on a thick dhal (yellow split peas) and dumpling soup my grandmother would make on a Saturday (have you heard of Soup Saturday?). Truly simplicity at it’s best! My grandmother would usually flavor hers with bits of Salted Cod, but we’ll be…
Here’s a dish which can be a soup (as I treated it today), a stew (add some cubed potato and other root vegetables) or reduced to a lovely lentil side dish. While not the classic way we do lentils in the Caribbean, you’ll find that it’s just as tasty and COMFORTING! You’ll Need… 2 cans…
Unlike those thick vegetable and ground provision laden soups the region is known for, this Tomato Soup hits different on many levels. Smooth, rich and creamy with a hint of herbs and bursting with flavors of the summer. With the vine ripe tomatoes freshly harvested from my garden. You’ll Need… 4-5 lbs tomatoes2 tablespoon olive…
In the Caribbean this would be called a pumpkin soup and it would be thicker and packed with ground provisions and flour dumplings. Outstanding, but we’re going lighter today as I’d like for the smoky flavors, along with the Butternut Squash itself, to shine through and captivate our taste buds. You’ll Need… 1 large butternut…
Here’s another one of those classic soups you’ll find being made on a Saturday throughout the Caribbean, with each household putting their own personal twist on things. While it’s loving known as Red Peas Soup, the key ingredient in most cases is usually red beans (Kidney Beans). And though in this recipe I didn’t use any ground provisions (I explain more in the demo video) it’s also customary to add stewing beef and/or smoked meats as well. I went pretty basic to keep it simple for you to duplicate, while giving you maximum flavor and heartiness.
One of my favorite soups to look forward to on “Soup Saturdays” was when mom would have a massive pot of saltbeef (salted beef) soup, packed with ground provisions bubbling away on the stove. Due to the price and the fact that sourcing ‘good’ salted beef was difficult, we didn’t have saltbeef soup often. I still get a chuckle when I do thick heavy soups during the summer months here in Canada and people would say “isn’t it too hot for soups?”. For the most part the Caribbean is always hot and it’s tradition throughout the Caribbean that on Saturday’s we enjoy a piping hot bowl of soup.
Take us away from the Caribbean, but you CANNOT take the “Caribbean” from US! Soup and Saturday is like the blue shirt and khaki shorts uniform you’d see next generation island boys smartly dressed in as they make their way to school. You expect to see it, without question. In my time on the islands anyway! We love making a massive (no matter how hard you try, the pot never seems big enough) pot of soup, rich and thick with wonderful flavors and textures. Guaranteed to be found on a Saturday bubbling away in homes across the region.
![Gluten Free Vegetarian Callaloo Recipe [creamy spinach soup].](https://caribbeanpot.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Vegetarian-Trinidad-callaloo-1.jpg)
Callaloo, the delicious soup-like dish of the Southern Caribbean is traditionally made with the inclusion of fresh ocean crabs for it’s unique and rich flavor. If one cannot source that wonderful ‘blue’ crab, we then look for that layer of flavor from salted meats like pigtails and beef, and I’ve seen some people use smoked meats on some occasions. I must point out that the traditional recipe for making callalloo (not to be confused with Jamaican Callaloo) are the tender leaves of the dasheen or taro plant. However, sourcing those in Canada is almost impossible, so we’ll be using baby spinach with brilliant results in this vegetarian version of Callaloo.
That bone chilling cold is back and with a vengeance. Over the Christmas holidays it was relatively mild by Canadian standards, but this morning the mercury dropped to -28 C (-18.4 F). Like a true son of the Caribbean soil, I’m battling back with a hearty beef with sweet potato and pumpkin soup to warm up the mind, soul and body! We’ll start off by roasting the pieces of beef (with bones) in the oven, something which is not traditional in Caribbean soup making, but that roasted flavor will elevate this soup to a HIGHER level! Then we go in with pieces of pumpkin and sweet potato, followed by fresh herbs and other flavor ingredients.
