Gungo Peas Soup
Gungo Peas Soup is a classic flavourful Jamaican soup loaded with pigeon (gungo) peas, dumplings and hearty ground provision then simmered to cozy perfection for the ultimate Caribbean comfort meal. This pigeon peas soup comes together in less than two hours and can easily be made vegetarian or vegan for the perfect Saturday or any day soup!
Servings: 4 servings
Equipment
- Large Stockpot
- Long Handled Wooden Spoon
- Ladle
Ingredients
- 600 g Green Pigeon Peas frozen, gungo peas
- 12 cups Water
- 2 stalks Escallion crushed
- 2 cloves Garlic crushed
- 8 whole Pimento Seeds allspice berries
- 1/2 large Sweet Potato peeled, cut into chunks
- 2 slices Yellow Yam peeled, cut into chunks
- 1 med Coco Yam peeled, cut into chunks
- 1 large Carrot peeled and sliced
- 1/2 large Chocho cayote, peeled and cut into chunks
- 6 Dumpling recipe below
- 1 whole Scotch Bonnet Pepper
- 1 105g Beef Bouillon or vegetable bouillon
- 1 tsp All Purpose Seasoning or seasoning salt
- 1 tsp Salt more or less to taste
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
- 1 400ml Can Coconut Milk
Optional Ingredients
- 1.5 pounds Salted Beef beef shank or stewing beef, omit for vegan version
- 1 whole Corn cut into four
- Ground Provision yams, potatoes, sweet potatoes, dasheen, eddo, cassava etc.
Flour Dumplings
- 1 cup All Purpose Flour
- 1/2 cup Water
- 1/4 tsp Salt
Instructions
Prepare Cured/Salted Beef (if using)
- Add water to a large stockpot and bring to a boil. Then add cured/salted beef and boil for about 20 minutes to remove salt and discard water and set aside beef. Repeat if necessary until desired amount of salt has been been boiled out.
Cook Beef (if using) & Pigeon "Gungo" Peas
- In the same large stockpot, bring to rapid boil 12 cups of fresh water. Carefully add the beef shank or stewing beef, cured/salted beef if using and peas. Allow to boil for about 30 minutes to an hour or until the beef and peas are mid-tender.
Gungo Peas Soup
- While beef and peas are boiling, prepare your other fresh ingredients; sweet potato, yellow yam, coco yam, carrot, chocho, dumpling and scotch bonnet pepper; set aside.
- When beef and peas are more on the tender side add the remaining fresh ingredients including the dumpling and add an additional cup of water to ensure all soup ingredients are covered; reduce heat to medium.
- Pour in coconut milk, and season with beef or vegetable bouillon, all purpose seasoning, salt and black pepper. Give a good stir, taste test and adjust if necessary; allow to simmer for an additional 15 mins. Remove scotch bonnet pepper and thyme sprigs, serve while hot and enjoy!
Dumpling
- In a medium mixing bowl, add flour and salt then gradually add water and use your hand to knead and form the dough for the spinners. Dough should be soft but not sticky and wet.
- Pinch or cut off 6 to 8 equal sized pieces. Use the palms of your hands to make long thin dumpling style spinners. Set each spinner aside.
Notes
Flour Dumplings – you may not need all the water listed to form the dumplings. You may need a little more or less, depending on the flour. Add water gradually.
Level of Spice – don’t let the scotch bonnet pepper burst, unless you want a spicer soup.
Water/Stock Level – always make sure there’s enough water in your pot to cover your ingredients at all times. Enough water to cover the beef (if using) and peas during the cooking process. Enough water to cover all your vegetables and dumplings to allow the soup to simmer.
See detailed notes above for additional tips.