St. Vincent & the Grenadines is a group of islands located in the Caribbean. Its cuisine is very similar to that of other surrounding Caribbean countries. To celebrate their Independence Day on October 27th, I decided to make a pigeon pea soup with dumplings.
The national dishes of St. Vincent are roasted breadfruit and fried jackfish. Obviously fried fish was out, and I'm not sure where I would procure breadfruit living in northern Vermont. So, I went in search of a dish that was more do-able.
I started with the dumplings. They were a simple combination of flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, and nutmeg.
While the dough for the dumplings rested, I started on the soup. The base consisted of sauteed onions and celery.
A lot of Caribbean recipes call for pumpkin. Not the big kind you use for carving at Halloween, but more like winter squash. I used acorn squash as a substitute here.
The pumpkin or squash is then sauteed with seasonings. The recipe I used only called for salt and pepper, but I added some thyme since it's often used in a wide variety of Caribbean recipes.
Then, I added more vegetables: carrot and plantain.
The recipe actually called for green plantain, rather than a ripe one. I'm not sure why, but in making recipes with green plantain I've noticed that it has more of a potato texture and taste rather than the softer, sweeter taste you expect from a ripe one, so it may just be to add another hearty vegetable to the soup.
Green pigeon peas are surprisingly easy to find. You can usually find the Goya brand in the international section of regular supermarkets.
With everything else added to soup and a few minutes left of cooking time, I added the dumplings. The dough is simply shaped into flat discs and dropped in the soup to cook along with everything else. Very similar to making chicken and dumplings.
The dumplings I made were a little too big and weren't really cooking in the middle very well, so I ended up cutting them into fourths.
I can't imagine eating one of those whole because even a small one was a little much to chew on. Especially when combined with the other ingredients in the soup. It was incredibly filling while still being quite healthy and nutritious.
Recipes Used: Green Pigeon Pea Soup & Dumplings
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