Bajan Soup (Saturday soup)
Overview
Bajan soup is the hearty Saturday soup of Barbados, a whole meal in one pot. Salted pig tails are boiled first to remove excess salt, then simmered with dried split peas, chicken, lamb or other meat and a whole Scotch bonnet pepper until the peas and meat are tender. Pumpkin, sweet potato, eddoes, carrot and other ground provisions go in with onion, celery, thyme, marjoram and chives, and the pumpkin softens into the broth and turns it golden. Last come the dumplings, small balls of a stiff dough made with flour, a little sugar, nutmeg and sometimes cornmeal, which swell in the simmering soup, and some cooks add okra. The pepper is lifted out whole before serving.
History
Making a big pot of soup on Saturday is a tradition across the English-speaking Caribbean, often using up the meat and vegetables left at the end of the week. In Barbados the soup is known for its sweet, spiced dumplings, and families and cooks argue about what belongs in it, though many agree that a soup without dumplings is not really a soup.
Main ingredients
Yellow split peas, pig tails, chicken, pumpkin, sweet potato, dumplings. The soup is built on thick golden split pea and pumpkin broth and is usually served hot. Diet: contains meat; not usually gluten-free.
Explore: Chicken soups · Pumpkin and squash soups
Recipe
Method
- 1
Boil the pig tails for a few minutes and drain.
- 21 h
Simmer them in 4 l water with the split peas, chicken and whole pepper for 1 hour.
- 320 min
Add the vegetables, onion, celery and herbs and simmer for 20 minutes.
- 4
Mix the flour, sugar, nutmeg and butter with water to a stiff dough, shape into balls and add to the pot.
- 520 min
Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes more, remove the pepper and herbs and serve.
- ✓
Serve. About 2h 15m from start to bowl.
Sources
Description, history and recipe written by SoupWiki and checked against the sources above. Calories and times are rough estimates.
