Crab & Callaloo Soup

If you want food that feeds the soul, a bowl of Crab and Callaloo Soup can do the job. It will calm the nerves, slow you down and shut out the noise in your head. It is a soup to savour.

Thick, silky, and creamy, each spoonful slides smoothly across the tongue. If you eat it with dumplings, the chew is hearty, and the crab, well, that’s the prize in the bowl.

Abandon the spoon and use your hands to pick up the crab, then lick, suck, crack and pry it open to get to the sweet crab meat.

Use the freshest ingredients to make this soup; this means also using freshly squeezed coconut milk. However, if you only have access to canned coconut milk, then use it but dilute the canned coconut milk using a 1:1.5 ratio (for every cup of canned coconut milk, dilute it with 1 ½ cups of water).

SPECIAL EQUIPMENT

• 1 large pot with a lid
• Swizzle stick, dhal gutney, whisk or immersion blender

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound eddo-leaf callaloo (dasheen leaves), stemmed and chopped
• ½ pound okra, tops and tips removed and cut into ¼-inch rounds
• ½ pound of pumpkin chopped into small chunks
• 4 sprigs Guyanese thyme (6 – 8 sprigs regular fine thyme)
• Chopped pimentos to taste (seasoning pepper)
• 1 cup finely minced onions
• 2 sprigs celery, finely chopped
• 1 large hot pepper
• 4 cups fresh coconut milk
• 3 cups vegetable stock or water
• 4 – 5 large crabs, cleaned and chopped into large pieces
• 3 tablespoons butter (salted or unsalted)
• Salt and black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. 

   Add all the ingredients except the crab, butter, salt and pepper to the pot, stir, cover and place on high heat. Bring to a boil and cook for 15 minutes.

2. Add crabs, butter and salt and pepper to taste. Cover, bring back to a boil and cook for 20 minutes.
3. Remove whole hot pepper and crabs. Puree the mixture to your desired consistency then add back the crabs and pepper. Put the pot back on the heat and cook the soup uncovered for 10 minutes or until it thickens to the consistency you like. Taste for seasoning and adjust to suit.
4. Serve with dumplings, boiled ground provisions or bread.