Yellow split peas are very prevalent in the Indian communities of Guyana, Fiji, Suriname, Jamaica, South Africa, Mauritius, Trinidad and Tobago, and are popular amongst Indians in the United States as well as India. There, it is referred to generically as dal and is the most popular dal. It is prepared similarly to dals found in India, but may be used in recipes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dal#Common_ingredients
So I guess I lied a little bit in my last post. Turns out there weren’t actually a whole lot of Jamaican dhal recipes to work from. But a search for Jamaican split pea recipes turned up plenty to work with.
I don’t actually see much Indian influence in this recipe, although one or two recipes I looked at did refer to their soup as “dhal and dumplings”. It is, however, full of a wide varieties of vegetables that reflect the multicultural melting-pot that is Jamaica.
The most exciting ingredient, to me, is yam. No, not sweet potatoes, which are often sold as yams here in the US, but true yam, which I don’t think I had ever eaten before. According to Wikipedia yam is the common name for plants in the genus Dioscorea that form edible tubers (other species in the genus are toxic, and are not called yams). They are perennial vines native to Africa, Asia and the Americas. There are several different species grown around the world, so the yams from one country may not look a whole lot like the yams from another country.
Yams are a starchy vegetable. Raw I would say that they have a texture similar to sweet potato, but they cook up a little dryer- the texture reminds me of plantains. They definitely don’t have the sweetness of sweet potato, and I would say they taste similar to regular potatoes.
In Jamaica, yellow yam seems to be the most common variety. It grows as a pretty massive, cylindrical, tuber- I watched one video that included harvesting the yam before making it into soup, and it literally looked like a massive tap root, growing straight down from the plant. I was surprised that there seem to be a number of vendors on Amazon that sell fresh yam. Most are selling African varieties, but there are a couple with the Jamaican ones. I bought this one* , which was advertised as one tuber, but what I recived was obviously a chunk cut from a much larger tuber. It was more or less the perfect amount for this recipe, so I’m not going to complain (much).
One thing to be aware of with yams is that they oxidize very rapidly once they have been cut, turning brown and eventually black. I’ve indicated in my recipe that you shouldn’t cut the yam until you are ready to put it in the pot. My one complaint with receiving a chunk of yam rather than the whole tuber, is that not only were the cut ends extremely oxidized, but there were some cracks or damage running into the center that had spread oxidization into the tuber, so I lost maybe 25-30% of the yam. In future I might buy one of the options that says it’s more than 1 tuber in hopes of avoiding this problem (that would also be a better deal. I paid $25 for 1, the other options are more money over all, but less expensive per pound. I just didn’t have a use for more than one yam. )
The other ingredients in the soup are all standard grocery store ingredients. It’s chock full of other vegetables, including sweet potato, white potato, pumpkin (I used half a buttercup squash) and sweet corn, and it starts with a sofrito of onion, celery and green bell pepper.
I bought bone in chicken thighs, but wound up deboning and skinning them because I wanted to cut them into smaller pieces. I call for thighs in the recipe, but you could use whatever cut you like. Bone in would probably be more traditional.
The other ingredients that give it Jamaican flavors are allspice, scallion, fresh thyme, and Scotch bonnet pepper (I used habañero). Once again, as seems to be typical in recipes from actual Jamaicans, the hot pepper is left whole, and doesn’t actually add a whole lot of heat to the recipe. If you’re looking for something spicier, feel free to chop it up before you add it.
If you recall my last Jamaican recipe, stew peas with spinners, (how was that almost four years ago?) you’ll see some similarity here. Jamaicans seem to like to put dumplings in their soups. I can’t say that I’m a super big fan of Jamaican style dumplings- they’re typically just flour and water, and cook up pretty dense. This time around we added some cornmeal to the dough, which gives them a slightly different texture, but they still taste like dense boiled dough to me. One of the videos I watched came from a woman from a different Caribbean island who complained about how dense Jamaican dumplings are. She made hers with baking powder and butter, which I have included in the optional ingredients to make fluffier dumplings at the expense of authenticity.
There are some other unusual ingredients in the optional list that I didn’t use this time. Salted pigs tails are a common ingredient in Jamaica- the stew peas with spinners recipe I mentioned in the last paragraph uses them.
Salt beef would be something like the carne seca I used in most of my Brazilian feijoada recipes.
A couple of the recipes I looked at called for a packet of “pumpkin cock soup mix*“. No, get your minds out of the gutter. That’s male chickens we’re talking about, not some unknown piece of squash anatomy.
Caribbean green seasoning is a mixture of fresh herbs, garlic, etc. that many Caribbean cooks make up and keep on hand for use in pretty much everything. A google search will lead you to plenty of recipes.
Jamaican Split Pea Soup
Yield: 6-8 servings
Prep: ~40 minutes
Cook: ~1:40
Total: ~2:00
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¾-1 lb yellow split peas
7 cups water, plus more as needed
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil OR olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 small celery ribs, chopped
1 small bell pepper, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
¾ Tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
¾ lb chicken thighs, cut in serving size pieces
1 large carrot, chopped
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 scallions, chopped
½ teaspoon allspice berries
1 Scotch bonnet pepper, whole
¾ teaspoon salt
1 pinch black pepper
¾ cup coconut milk
½ large yellow yam
1 sweet potato, peeled and cut in 2” pieces
1 ½ cobs sweet corn, cut in 2” pieces
⅓ medium pumpkin or squash, peeled and cut in 2” pieces
2 small white potatoes, peeled and diced
1 cup flour
½ cup cornmeal
½ teaspoon salt
⅔ cup hot water (or as needed)
1 ½ scallions, minced
2 Tablespoons parsley, minced
Optional:
2 salted pigs tails, chopped, rinsed, and par boiled for 1 hour.
2 cloves of garlic, with the peas
1 ½ teaspoons turmeric, with the peas
Salt beef
⅔ package Jamaican pumpkin chicken soup mix
⅔ package Jamaican chicken noodle soup mix
4 teaspoons Caribbean green seasoning
⅛ teaspoon dried thyme
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 small chayote, diced
½ vegetable bouillon cube
Sazon seaoning, to taste
½ teaspoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 ½ cups spelt flour, in place of flour and cornmeal
9 cups chicken broth, in place of water
1 large turnip, diced
1 large parsnip, diced
¼ teaspoon ground allspice, in place of berries
1 bay leaf
¾ cup canned corn, in place of fresh
1 teaspoon baking powder
AND
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, for lighter dumplings
Pick over your peas, removing any stones or other foreign objects. Rinse until water runs clear, then place in a medium sized pot with 7 cups of water. Bring to a boil, skimming off any scum and foam that rises to the surface. Lower heat and simmer until peas begin to soften, 45 minutes to an hour. (The peas will continue to cook with the rest of the soup, so they don’t need to be completely cooked, but should be starting to soften).
About 15 minutes before peas are ready, heat oil in a large soup pot or dutch oven and sauté the onion, celery, bell pepper, garlic and ginger over medium heat, until the onion begins to brown. Add the chicken and brown on all sides.
Transfer the cooked peas and their water to the pot with the chicken, and add the carrots, thyme, 2 scallions, allspice and Scotch bonnet. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Be careful not to burst the hot pepper if you don’t want your soup super spicy.
Add the salt, black pepper and coconut milk. Mix well.
Throughout the next steps, add additional hot water as needed to keep everything covered and reach your desired consistency. Remember that the soup with thicken as it cools, so it can be pretty watery at this stage.
Peel and chop the yam into 2” pieces. It will oxidize quickly once the flesh is exposed, so wait until you are ready to add it to the pot to cut it. Add the yam and sweet potato to the soup and simmer for another 10 minutes or so.
Add the sweet corn, pumpkin and potatoes, and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, make your dumplings. Mix flour, cornmeal and salt in a small bowl. Mix in warm water, a little at a time, until a soft dough forms. Knead for a couple minutes until the dough is smooth. Let rest for 5 minutes.
Remove the hot pepper and thyme stems from the soup.
Tear off small balls of dough and shape into your desired dumpling shape, dropping into the soup as you make them. Remember that the dumplings will swell as they cook, so make them smaller than you want the finished product to be, and don’t feel like you have to use all of the dough if it feels like too many dumplings.
Add the minced scallion and parsley, and continue to simmer until everything is tender and the dumplings are cooked through, 5-10 more minutes.
Check for seasoning, and serve!
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I receive no compensation for mentioning any other websites or product.
Lorin cooks Legumes 