Coconut & Pea Soup
Now that there’s actually snow on the ground (the horror!), I’m thinking about the Caribbean. Hearty stews are a superlative winter dish, of course, and it’s always fun to haul out the fondue pot, but what I really want during the wintertime is to be warm, and what better way to do that than come up with a tropical culinary creation and dust it with a bit of cayenne? If I just closed my eyes and stuck my toes into a bucket of sand, too, I’d probably be able to trick myself into thinking that I’m on a Jamaican beach.
With that goal in mind, I’ve thrown together the American equivalents of quintessential island ingredients — sweet potatoes, green peas, spinach, coconut, and shrimp — to create a warming winter dish a la Caribe. How much cayenne you include is up to you, mon!
Coconut & Pea Soup
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, sliced into rounds
1 T. unrefined coconut oil or unrefined peanut oil
4 cups chicken stock, preferably from free-range chickens
2 cups frozen sweet peas
1 sweet potato, diced
1/2 cup whole coconut milk
Several handfuls of fresh spinach (baby or curly)
1/2 lb. (or more) of peeled and cleaned shrimp, medium-sized (you can also use little rock shrimp or langoustines)
Sautée onion in oil over medium heat for about three minutes or until the onion begins to turn translucent. Turn down heat to medium-low and add garlic. Stir and cook for another 1-2 minutes or until the garlic is fragrant (but not brown). Slowly pour in stock, then stir in peas, sweet potato, and coconut milk. Simmer on low heat for about 15 minutes to give the flavors a chance to marry. (You may want to sprinkle in a bit of sea salt to taste.)
Add spinach and shrimp to the soup and continue to simmer for another 3 minutes if you’re using medium-sized shrimp or langoustines. (Rock shrimp might only take 2 minutes.) If you’re using jumbo shrimp, you might need another minute or two to cook them through — pull one out and see if it’s opaque and starting to curl. As soon as the shrimp are done, pull the pot off the heat! Shrimp will continue to cook even after you’ve removed the soup pot from the burner.
Serve with a dash of cayenne if desired. A dollop of coconut cream would also be a nice topping (and could tone down the heat if you’ve been a bit too liberal with the pepper).
Enjoy!
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Tags: caribbean, coconut, peas, shrimp, soup, spinach, sweet potato
