🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago · Trinidad, street food
Trinidad corn soup
A thick Trinidadian street soup of yellow split peas and corn (creamed and on the cob) with pumpkin, sweet potato or potato, coconut and small flour dumplings, often with salted pig tail, seasoned with thyme, culantro (shado beni), pimento and hot pepper.
Origin and history
Corn soup is a thick Trinidadian street food that Visit Trinidad, the national tourism site, features in its street food favourites, sold at many restaurants and by vendors across the island. Trinidadian cookbook author Chris De La Rosa describes it as a common sight at late-night gatherings and street stalls, often eaten after Carnival or on a rainy day. The sources give no date or origin for it.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 6 servings
- Total time
- 1 h 30 min
- Hands-on
- 45 min
Ingredients
- 700-900 g1 1/2-2 lb salted pig tails, cut in 2.5 cm (1 in) pieces; optional
- 300 g1 1/4 cups yellow split peas, washed
- 1.2 liters5 cups water, for the split peas; adjust as needed
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 tbsp coconut oil, or vegetable oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 3 stalks scallions, chopped
- 6 sprigs fresh thyme
- 3 pimento peppers (small sweet seasoning peppers), whole; use a few sweet mini peppers if unavailable
- 2 hot peppers (bird's eye or Scotch bonnet), left whole
- 3 tbsp shado beni (culantro), chopped; or cilantro
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley
- 2 cups (about 300 g)2 cups pumpkin, diced
- 2 cups (about 270 g)2 cups sweet potato, diced
- 500-750 ml2-3 cups chicken stock
- 360 ml1 1/2 cups coconut milk
- 4-6 ears of corn, cut in 2.5 cm (1 in) rounds
- 1 can (about 400 g)1 can (14 oz) cream-style corn
- 125 g1 cup plain flour, for the dumplings
- 60 ml1/4 cup water, for the dumplings; adjust
- salt and black pepper, to taste
Method
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1. If using pig tails, boil them in water for about 25 minutes to tenderise them and draw out the salt, then drain.
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2. In a large pot add the 1.2 liters of water, the split peas and the garlic. Simmer for 35-40 minutes, until the peas are tender.
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3. In a second pot warm the oil and cook the onion, scallions, thyme, black pepper, whole peppers, shado beni, parsley and celery gently for 4-5 minutes.
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4. Add the pumpkin and sweet potato and the chicken stock. Boil for about 25 minutes, until soft.
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5. Add the cooked split peas with their liquid and the pig tails, then the coconut milk and creamed corn. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 20 minutes.
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6. Mash the pumpkin and sweet potato into the soup with a whisk or a swizzle stick to thicken it. Add stock or water if it gets too thick.
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7. Mix the flour with a pinch of salt and add the water gradually to make a soft dough. Rest it for 5 minutes, divide into three, roll into cylinders and cut into small pieces.
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8. Add the dumplings and the corn rounds to the boiling soup and cook for 5 more minutes. Adjust the seasoning, remove the whole hot peppers and serve hot.
Notes
- The soup should be thick: the split peas, the mashed pumpkin and sweet potato, and the corn do the thickening, with no cream or flour roux.
- The pig tail is optional: the Visit Trinidad tourism recipe (from Foodie Nation) uses no meat, makes the base with split pea powder and coconut powder, blends the soup until semi-thick and stirs in corn at the end, for 8-10 portions. Caribbean Pot suggests salted beef or smoked meat in place of pig tails and gives a vegetarian version without them.
- Dumplings are small: Visit Trinidad cuts them pea-sized, Caribbean Pot into 1/2 inch (1 cm) pieces; both sources allow a pinch of turmeric in the dough for colour.
- Corn soup is sold at street stalls and restaurants across Trinidad and is eaten at late-night gatherings, after Carnival or on rainy days, hot from a bowl or cup.
- Shado beni (culantro) is the broad serrated herb found in Caribbean and Latin markets; cilantro is a milder substitute.
- Make ahead: it thickens as it cools; thin with water or stock when reheating. Caribbean Pot keeps leftovers up to 3 days in the fridge, or 3 months frozen.
Adapted from Chris De La Rosa, Caribbean Pot: Trinidad-Style Corn Soup with Salted Pigtails and Visit Trinidad, Street food favourites: how to make Trini corn soup.
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