Caribbean · Jamaican comfort food

Jamaican Pepper Pot Soup

A hearty Jamaican soup with savory meat, callaloo, ground provisions, pumpkin, herbs, Scotch bonnet, and dumplings.

8servings30 minprep2 hrcookOne potmethod

Dianne's Jamaican pepper pot soup with meat, callaloo, pumpkin, vegetables, and dumplings — Jamaican pepper pot from Dianne's kitchen

From Dianne's kitchen

A soup with deep Jamaican roots

Jamaican Pepper Pot Soup carries a long tradition of making a generous, flavorful one-pot meal from ground provisions, leafy greens, herbs, and slowly cooked meat.

Every family has its own version. This one is rich, flexible, and made for sharing around the table.

What you'll need

Ingredients

Meat

1 pound corned beef, stew beef, or beef shank
½ pound pig tail or salt beef, optional
½ pound tripe, pork belly, or cow foot, optional
Juice of 1 lime, for washing meat

Vegetables and provisions

6 ounces callaloo, chopped, or spinach/kale
1 medium carrot, sliced
1–2 celery stalks, diced
1 small pumpkin or squash, cubed
1 sweet potato, chopped
Small piece yuca, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 scallions, chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed

Seasoning and dumplings

3–4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon black pepper
6 pimento berries
1–2 whole Scotch bonnet peppers
Salt, to taste
8 cups water, beef stock, or vegetable stock
½ cup coconut milk
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
About 1 cup water

Step by step

Instructions

Wash the meat with lime water, rinse, and place in a large soup pot with water or stock, thyme, bay leaf, pimento, garlic, scallion, onion, and black pepper.
Bring to a boil, then lower to a gentle simmer. Cook until the meat is becoming tender; salted meats may need a rinse or a longer cook first.
Add pumpkin, carrot, sweet potato, yuca, celery, and coconut milk. Simmer until the provisions begin to soften.
Mix flour, salt, and water into a stiff dough. Pinch off pieces and shape some into spinners and some into small round dumplings.
Add callaloo and dumplings to the soup. Add the whole Scotch bonnet without cutting it for gentle heat.
Simmer until the greens are tender, dumplings are cooked through, and the soup is rich and flavorful. Taste and adjust salt before serving.

Jamaican pepper pot soup with beef, callaloo, pumpkin, vegetables, and dumplings

Dianne's kitchen tip

Build flavor in layers.

Add more pumpkin if you would like a fuller, gently sweet broth.

Keep the Scotch bonnet whole for fragrance and mild heat, or carefully burst it only if you want a much spicier pot.