← Nouns Cooking · Caribbean

Ingredients

• 500 g callaloo (amaranth greens), or spinach and chard
• 1 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 3 cloves Garlic, minced
• 2 Spring onion, chopped
• 1 Tomato, chopped
• 2 sprigs Thyme
• ¼ Scotch bonnet chilli, finely chopped
• 60 ml Water
• ½ tsp Salt
• ¼ tsp Black pepper

Method

1. Strip the callaloo leaves from the tough stems. Peel and finely chop the tender stems, roughly chop the leaves and wash everything well.
2. Heat the oil in a large pan with a lid over medium heat. Cook the onion, garlic, spring onion, tomato, thyme and scotch bonnet for 2–3 min.
3. Add the chopped stems and cook for 3 min, until starting to soften.
4. Pile in the leaves, add the water, salt and pepper, cover and steam for 6–8 min, stirring once, until tender. (Spinach needs only 2–3 min.)
5. Remove the thyme stalks and serve with fried dumplings, boiled green bananas or ackee and saltfish.

Tips

• Tinned callaloo from Caribbean shops works too: drain it and heat through in step 4 for 3 min.
• Stir in flaked saltfish for the classic callaloo and saltfish.
• Wear gloves to cut or blend scotch bonnets, keep your hands away from your eyes and wash the board, knife and blender well afterwards.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Jamaicans.com CaribbeanPot.com