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Callaloo Soup I

A Caribbean soup with callaloo leaves, silver beet, okra, garlic, scotch bonnet pepper, spring onions, thyme, bacon, crab, and stock.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Taro and okra share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Callaloo Soup I

Time1–1½ hours

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Put oil and bacon pieces in a stockpot and cook bacon until crispy.

  2. Add onion, garlic, and seasonings, and sauté.

  3. Add stock, okra, silverbeet, and a whole scotch bonnet pepper.

  4. Bring to a boil, then simmer until all vegetables are soft, about 1–1½ hours. Be very careful not to burst the whole pepper.

Finish the soup

  1. With a spoon, carefully remove the pepper and discard it.

  2. Using an electric beater (or a hand‑held swizzle stick), beat the soup until the vegetables are mashed down; do not puree.

  3. Return the pot to heat and add crabmeat or crabs. Simmer until the crab is cooked.

  4. Serve hot. Wear a bib to keep the front clean when eating crabs and sucking crabmeat from the legs. Enjoy!

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

556Calories
58 gProtein
23 gFat
30 gCarbs

Counts 11 of 15 ingredients. The other 4 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Chicken100g cooked165
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Crab100g cooked97
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Bacon1 slice cooked (8g)43
Beet1/2 cup (85g)35
Okra1 cup (100g)33
Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Taronot in our table0
Plantnot in our table0
Scotchnot in our table0
Saucenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Taro + okratop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Okra + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together212 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Garlic + olivetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Okra
Releases natural thickening starch as it cooks, giving the soup body after mashing.
Silver beet
Adds leafy texture and earthy flavour that breaks down into the soup when mashed.
Bacon
Renders fat that carries flavour through the pot and browns the base.
Crabmeat
Adds sweet, delicate seafood flavour and tender protein to the finished soup.
Dasheen leaves
Provide tender, mild leafy body that softens and thickens the soup as it simmers.

The step that matters

Simmer until the vegetables are fully soft, then mash without pureeing. Long simmering breaks down cell walls so the vegetables soften and thicken the broth. Mashing by hand or beater keeps some texture, whereas blending would make the soup smooth and change its intended rustic body.

Swap the taro

The recipe marks taro as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (okra, clove, garlic, pepper, onion, thyme, olive):

  1. Eggplantfits better
  2. Kalefits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tarothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against okra, clove, garlic, pepper, onion, thyme, olive. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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