Grab your stock pot and get your tastebuds ready because today, we’re slurping some flavorful Jamaican soups! They’re warm, hearty, and oh-so-comforting.Jamaica is known for its white sandy beaches and spicy Jerk chicken. But did you know they also make some pretty stellar soups?They have rainy days, too, after all. And nothing beats a big bowl of something warm when it’s cold and gray outside.
# Jamaican Chicken Soup
Ingredients1 lb Boneless chicken
1 pack Chicken noodle soup mix
½ lb Fresh pumpkin Cubed
½ lb Yellow yam Cubed
1 Chocho (chayote) Peal and cubed
1 Corn Cut into three pieces
2 Medium carrots Peal and diced
1 Medium onion Sliced
4 Cloves garlic Crushed
1 Scotch bonnet pepper
2 Scallions (spring onions) Chopped
5 Sprig of thyme
5 Pimento berries (Allspice)
½ tsp Salt Or to your taste
Water
Dumpling Mix1 cup Plain flour
Water
¼ tsp Salt optional
1 tbsp Cornmeal optional
MethodHow to make the dumpling
- Mix the flour and salt (if you are adding salt) with enough water to make a stiff dough.
- Separate into very small pieces and make round flat dumplings
Prepearing the soup
- Place the chicken in a large soup pot along with the pimento (allspice), onion, scallion, garlic, thyme, corn, salt and cover about an inch with boiling water let it cook for 10 minutes.
- Add the pumpkin, carrot, chocho, yellow yam and the dumplings. Adding enough boiling water to cover the foods in the pot.
- Stir in the soup mix and add the scotch bonnet pepper. Do not cut the pepper, add it whole.
- Cover the pot and let it cook for 30-55 minutes. Stir occasionally, be careful not to bust the pepper. One the pot starts to bubble, turn the heat down.
- One the food is cooked and the soup take colour, taste the pot if you need more salt. You may want to remove the pepper at this time.
# Grandmother’s Pepper Pot Soup
Ingredients1/2 pound salted beef or pig tail
2 medium sweet potatoes
2 medium white potatoes
1 pound yellow yam
1 pound boneless beef shank, cut into 1 1/2–inch chunks
1 cup all-purpose flour
Salt
1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
1 (19-ounce) can callaloo, drained and rinsed
1/2 pound fresh or frozen okra (about 2 cups)
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 scallions, halved crosswise
5 sprigs thyme
2 tablespoons salted butter
1 Scotch bonnet pepper
Method- Rinse the salted beef and cut it into roughly 1 1/2–inch chunks. Place these (or the pig tail) into a small pot of cold water and bring to a boil.
- Cook for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain the water. Refill the pot with cold water. Bring to a boil again, and cook for 5 minutes. Drain the water.
- Add 3 1/2 quarts of water to a large pot and bring to a boil. While that’s heating up, peel the sweet potatoes, white potatoes, and yellow yam.
- Chop into 1 1/2–inch chunks and add to a bowl of cold water to prevent any discoloration.
- Add the salted beef (or pig tails) and beef shank to the boiling water. Cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the stew beef is tender (the salt beef is dense, so it won’t really seem as tender at this point).
- While the beef is boiling, prepare the spinner dumplings: Combine the flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and oil in a large bowl.
- Slowly pour in 1/2 cup of water, stirring with a fork to form a dough. Once the mixture turns into small clumps, switch from the fork to your hand to knead gently, until you have a soft, smooth dough.
- You may need to add a bit more water along the way, but the dough should not be sticky.
- Pinch off slightly less than a tablespoon of dough and roll between your palms to create a long dumpling, about 3 1/2 inches long, like a fat caterpillars. Repeat with the remaining dough.
- When the beef shank is tender, use a slotted spoon or spider to remove the meat from the pot and transfer to a bowl. Keep the broth in the pot—this will serve as the base for the soup.
- Add the callaloo, okra, and garlic to the broth and boil for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat.
- Blend until the callaloo and okra are smooth with an immersion blender or a countertop blender.
- Set the pot with the puree over a medium-high heat. Drain the potatoes and yam. Add these to the pot with the meat, dumplings, scallions, thyme, butter, and Scotch bonnet.
- Cover and boil for 30 minutes, until the potatoes are tender, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. (Be careful to avoid bursting or puncturing the Scotch bonnet, or the soup will be very spicy.) Salt to taste.
- Remove the Scotch bonnet, thyme, and scallions. Use a fork and knife to remove the Scotch bonnet’s seeds and stem, then slice into small pieces to serve alongside the soup, for everyone to add to taste.
# Jamaican Gungo Peas SoupIngredients⅔ cup of dried gungo peas
1 litre of vegetable stock see post for recipe
a bunch of callaloo approx 2 cups worth shredded (or spinach)
2 large spring onions chopped,
4 sprigs of thyme or 1 tablespoon of thyme
1 tablespoon pimento seeds ½tsp of ground allspice
1 large sweet potato peeled and cut into chunks
1 large piece of yellow yam peel and cut into chunks
1 small onion sliced
3 garlic cloves minced
1 teaspoon of black pepper
1 scotch bonnet or use 1 fresh chilli
1 large carrots sliced (optional)
1 cho cho (optional)
pink salt to taste
Method- Place the gungo peas in a large pot with water and leave to soak overnight.
- Discard the water that soaked the gungo peas and rinse thoroughly.
- Then add another batch of water (approximately 5 cups) to the pot with the peas, bring to the boil uncovered for around 1 hour or until slightly tender. The peas will cook in it's entirety when added to the soup but do make sure they have parboiled for the most part.
- Meanwhile, proceed with preparing the base of the soup, add the stock to the pot and bring to the boil.
- Add the scallion, pimento, garlic, thyme and sliced onions to the pot with the stock and give a good stir.
- Reduce the heat to a low simmer, cover with lid on for 15 minutes to allow the aforementioned to infuse.
- Remove the lid, gently stir before adding the sweet potato, yam, callaloo, sliced carrot and cho cho (if you're adding) to the pot.
- Carefully add the scotch bonnet, ensuring it doesn't burst to release the heat, we want the flavour to penetrate the soup not heat.
- Finally cover the pot with the lid and allow to gently simmer for a further 45 minutes, during this time the soup will take on a thick texture (add more vegetable stock/water if needed).
- Do a taste test and adjust for pink salt and black pepper if needed
- Serve accordingly.