🇭🇳 Honduras · Caribbean coast and Bay Islands of Honduras, Garifuna cooking
Sopa de caracolHonduran conch soup
A coconut-milk soup of the Honduran Caribbean coast: tenderised conch simmered with yuca, green banana and plantain in fish stock and coconut milk, seasoned with onion, garlic, green chile and cilantro (cilantro and culantro).
Origin and history
Sopa de caracol is a soup of Honduras's Caribbean coast, described by La Prensa as one of the country's most recognised and emblematic dishes. Its origin is attributed to the Garifuna, Black communities who came from the island of San Vicente and settled on the north coast; La Prensa says the cultural exchange that followed produced a cuisine that includes this soup. According to El Heraldo, the 1990s hit song "Sopa de caracol" by Banda Blanca was inspired by the dish.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 4 servings
- Total time
- 50 min
- Hands-on
- 30 min
Ingredients
- 1 lb (450 g)1 lb cleaned conch meat (caracol), pounded with a mallet, cut in pieces
- 1 white onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 green chile, chopped (a fresh local chile; use a mild green chile or part of a jalapeño to taste)
- 900 g2 lb yuca (cassava), peeled, cut in chunks
- 2 ripe plantains, peeled, cut in chunks
- 3 green bananas, peeled, cut in pieces
- 50 g3 1/2 tbsp margarine or butter, about half a bar of margarine
- 2 tbsp shrimp bouillon powder (consomé de camarón), optional
- 1/2 cup cilantro (thin-leaf), chopped
- 1/2 cup culantro (broad-leaf, cilantro ancho), chopped; use more cilantro if you cannot find it
- 2 cans (about 800 ml)2 cans (27 fl oz) coconut milk
- 1 liter1 quart fish stock
- salt and pepper, to taste
- lime wedges and cooked white rice, to serve
Method
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1. Melt the margarine in a large pot and fry the onion, garlic and green chile with the yuca and ripe plantain pieces for a few minutes.
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2. Stir in the shrimp bouillon, the thin cilantro and the broad culantro.
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3. Pour in the coconut milk and the fish stock and simmer over medium heat for about 20 minutes.
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4. Add the green banana pieces and cook until they are soft.
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5. Add the pounded conch and cook for no more than 5 minutes; longer makes it tough and rubbery.
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6. Turn off the heat, let the soup rest for 5 minutes and season with salt and pepper.
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7. Serve with lime wedges and white rice on the side.
Notes
- Honduran newspapers say the conch must be pounded with a mallet to break its fibres and added right at the end, because it toughens quickly.
- Fresh coconut milk: El Heraldo grates a coconut, blends it with about 1 cup of hot water and strains it through a cloth, saying this gives more intense flavour than canned milk. It also treats carrot (with the yuca) as a standard ingredient, adds achiote for colour in some versions, and thickens the soup with more coconut milk.
- A Bay Islands (Roatán) restaurant version has strips of conch, pink shrimp and white fish in the coconut-and-yuca broth, with thin green plantain flakes and rice on the side. Shrimp is an optional addition to the conch.
- Culantro (broad-leaf, culantro de pata or cilantro ancho) is also sold as recao or sawtooth coriander; using only common cilantro gives a milder soup.
- Make ahead: the base (without the conch) keeps for two days; add the conch only when you reheat to serve.
Adapted from La Prensa (Honduras), Sopa de caracol con coco and El Heraldo (Honduras), Sopa de caracol hondureña.
At the festivals
No festival we list has printed it on a menu yet.