Callaloo

Callaloo is a thick Trinidadian soup of dasheen leaves, okra and coconut milk, often made with crab. The name is used across the Caribbean for several leafy greens and for different green dishes, so a menu should say which one it means. The Trinidadian soup is a single-pot dish, cooked in home kitchens and served in restaurants.

What it really is

Dasheen is the taro plant, and its leaves are the green at the heart of the soup. The leaves are cooked down with onion and garlic in coconut milk until they soften, and okra, which thickens as it cooks, gives the liquid its body. Raw dasheen leaves irritate the mouth and throat, so they must be cooked fully before the soup is served.

Crab is often cooked into the pot, which makes the soup a seafood dish as well. Its flavour runs through the whole pot, because the crab cooks with the leaves rather than being added at the end.

How it's served

• Hot, in a deep bowl, as a main course or a substantial lunch.
• With rice, bread or dumplings, which are eaten alongside to soak up the thick broth.
• With pieces of crab in the bowl when crab has been cooked into the soup.

How to write it on the menu

• Name the leaf and the protein: "Callaloo with crab" for the version with crab, and "Callaloo" with the dasheen leaf named for the version without it.
• Flag crustaceans for every version with crab, and ask the kitchen whether the soup is made with meat stock or crab stock. A soup made with meat stock is not vegetarian, so a vegetarian guest needs that confirmed.
• Note that the soup contains coconut milk, since some guests avoid coconut.
• State which starch comes with it, and confirm that the leaves are cooked through before the soup is served.