Vegetarian Recipe for Callaloo

Callaloo is a West Indian Caribbean dish. Each island has its own take on this recipe, since I am from Trinidad, I’ve only ever made our version.

The original recipe calls for dasheen leaves (Taro in the US), ham bone, and salted pork. Since I am vegetarian, I’m not going there with the animals, this dish is really delicious so I’ve added my own spin to it to make it vegetarian.

Here’s what you’ll need

A bag of spinach or more depending on how much you want to make. Spinach replaces the dasheen leaves since it is not easily found in your average grocery store.

1 can of coconut milk

Butter or ghee (I always use ghee when I have it)

1 whole pepper

A handful or 2 of frozen ochroes

Fresh herbs: Thyme, Chives, Cilantro,

*Dried herbs: Cumin, Coriander, Cardamom, Lemon pepper, and a tiny bit of curry powder. The dried herbs will bump up the flavors because you don’t have the meats to flavor it.

Vegetable stock or Water

Cut up pumpkin, about a handful

Onion (cut up), garlic.

Here’s what to do

Add ghee or butter to a hot pot on medium heat.

Simmer the dried herbs, onion, and garlic until fragrant.

Add pumpkin, stir to coat then add water or veg stock to cook until the pumpkin is soft.

Next, add the whole pepper, ochroes, and spinach. The spinach will boil down so keep adding until you get to the amount you want. Stir to incorporate the flavors in the pot.

Once the vegetables are almost cooked add the coconut milk and let all those goodies have a nice steam bath. It should look like this:

Nearing the end add the fresh herbs. Your kitchen should be smelling mighty fine right now. Check outside to make sure your neighbors are not lined up at your door.

Once everything has softened, take it off the burner and let it cool. Remove the whole pepper, it has done its job, it was only there for flavor. You can substitute the whole pepper for any liquid pepper (hot sauce) you like. I use my mom’s hot-knock-your-socks-off pepper.

Once cooled, scoop it into a blender, you might have to work in batches if you made a lot. By the way, this freezes really well. Blend until smooth. It should look like this: