Trinidad Corn Soup

Trinidad corn soup is a very popular street food of Trinidad and Tobago. This vegan soup is full of flavors and textures. It's so delicious that I am sure it will become the favorite soup of most of you once you try it.

Course Soup

Cuisine Carribean, Trinidad

Diet Vegan, Vegetarian

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 45

Total Time 1

Servings people

Calories 414kcal

Author Vandana Chauhan

Equipment

1 large cooking pot
1 pressure cooker/ instant pot/ regular cooking pot
Knife and chopping board
Spatula

Ingredients

1 cup split peas peele matar ki dal
1.5 cups chopped pumpkin
½ cup chopped potato
½ cup chopped carrot
½ cup chopped onion
1 celery stalk chopped
1 corn on the cob cut into around 1 inch thick slices
½ cup chopped shado beni or 1 cup chopped coriander leaves
6-7 garlic cloves
1 Scotch bonnet/ any hot chili pepper
1 cup boiled/ canned chickpeas
½ cup corn kernels
1 cup coconut milk
4 cups vegetable stock
½ teaspoon dried thyme
Ground black pepper to taste
Salt to taste
½ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup water or as required to make a smooth dough
2 cups water to cook the lentils
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Instructions

Wash split peas and put in a pressure cooker/ instant pot/ regular pot with pumpkin and water. Cook until the lentils and pumpkin turn mushy. Once cooked mash to a smooth paste with the help of a spatula.
Put Shado beni/ cilantro, garlic, and hot pepper in a grinding jar. Make a paste. Keep the paste aside.
In a bowl, mix flour, a pinch of salt, and water. Knead to make a smooth dough. Make small balls from this dough. Cover with a damp cloth and keep aside.
Heat oil in a pot and add chopped onions. Saute until the onions turn translucent.
Add celery and saute for around 2 minutes.
Add mashed split peas and vegetable stock. Mix well and cook for around 2-3 minutes.
Add coconut milk, shado beni paste, chopped potatoes, chickpeas, carrots, corn slices, corn kernels, dumplings, thyme, salt, and pepper. Add more water if needed. Cover the pot and cook for around 30 minutes or until the dumplings are cooked.
Serve hot!

Notes

Don't make very large balls of dough otherwise, they may remain raw at the center. Also, they increase in size after getting cooked and big dumplings don't taste good in this soup.
Traditionally shado beni is used in this recipe but if you can't find it use cilantro and double the quantity as shado beni is more flavorful than cilantro.
Usually, scotch bonnet is used in this soup but you can use any hot chili pepper.
To fasten the process of cooking split peas and pumpkin use a pressure cooker or instant pot.
Instead of mashing the split peas and pumpkin with a spatula, you can also use a blender to make a smooth paste. Just add some water or stock to the paste and then blend.
To cook lentils in a manual pressure cooker, 2 cups of water will be sufficient but if using a regular pot add more water (around 4 cups).

Nutrition