Callaloo with Coconut and Crab
Dasheen leaves melted into coconut milk with okra and crab, seasoned with thyme and a whole pepper left to perfume the pot.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 45 min
- Total
- 65 min
- Serves
- 6
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Course
- Starter
Ingredients
- Coconut milk400 ml
- Okra, sliced8
- Blue crab, cleaned2
- Thyme4 sprigs
Preparation
- 1
Sweat onion and garlic, then add the leaves, okra, thyme and coconut milk.
- 2
Add the crab and the whole pepper, cover and simmer 30 minutes.
- 3
Remove the pepper and crab, then swizzle or blend the soup until silky.
- 4
Return the crab, warm through and serve.
Tips
- — Never pierce the scotch bonnet unless you want the heat rather than the perfume.
Nutrition
Nutrition per serving · Calculated
- calories
- 268 kcal
- protein
- 12 g
- carbs
- 14 g
- fat
- 19 g
- fiber
- 4.6 g
- sugars
- 4 g
- sodium
- 540 mg
Callaloo
Caribbean PantryA green so central to Caribbean cooking it gave its name to a whole dish.
- Origin
- West Africa and the Pacific, adapted across the Antilles
- Flavour
- Mineral, earthy, faintly sweet with a silky texture when stewed
- Calories / 100g
- 23 kcal
- Seasonality
- Rainy season, June to December
The story behind this ingredient
Callaloo names both a leaf and a dish. In Trinidad it is dasheen bush simmered with coconut and crab; in Jamaica it is amaranth sautéed with thyme. The word itself carries West African roots, one of the clearest culinary survivals of the Middle Passage.
This ingredient means something to them
Shelly-Ann Boyce
Trinidad & Tobago · Callaloo, curries and doubles
“Callaloo is the one pot where every island ancestor sits together.”
Meet the chefWant to go further?
You discovered the ingredient. Now learn how to master it.
Callaloo & Coconut
A four-session course on Caribbean greens, coconut extraction and one-pot cooking.
- Sat, 3 Oct 2026, 16:00 · 240 min
- Port of Spain, Trinidad · In person · TTD 850
