Callaloo: Caribbean “Greens” Revealed

By Michelle Beadle Holder

What’s your favorite “greens”?  Most cultures have a classic leafy green vegetable dish that brings up feelings of love, family, and connection.  For people of the African diaspora raised in the US, collard, mustard, and turnip are traditional, comforting greens.  Callaloo is a favorite of people from the Caribbean.  It was through cooking callaloo with my mother that I discovered more about her and my cultural heritage.

Mom’s Callaloo Harvest (Amaranth)

Heart Left Callaloo (Dasheen or Taro)

What Is Callaloo?

Callaloo or callalou (also called pepperpot) is a popular tender greens in the Caribbean.  Different types of callaloo grow across the Caribbean.  For example, in Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, and Grenada, taro or dasheen leaves are used as callaloo.  These plants are known for their large heart- shaped leaves.  In Jamaica, Belize, and Guyana, we use the amaranth plant, like the one my mother has in her hands above.  Callaloo is also eaten in some parts of Africa and Asia. 

Health Benefits of Callaloo

Callaloo has great health benefits.  For example, it is high in fiber, calcium, and iron.  In Jamaica, pregnant women are often encouraged to eat callaloo.  My siblings and I ate plenty of it—in and out of the womb.

Planting Callaloo at Home

Before moving to the United States, my mom planted callaloo in her backyard garden in Jamaica.  After her pre-diabetes diagnosis in 2010, she started to plant callaloo again, but this time she planted it in her small front yard garden in Philadelphia.  

Callaloo (particularly the amaranth variety) doesn’t need much space to grow.  You can grow it in a flowerpot on a patio.  The best time to plant is during the summer when it’s hot. 

My mom inspired me to plant callaloo this year in my community garden plot in Columbia, Maryland.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t as successful as she is.  But I’ll try again next year. 

Cooking Callaloo Like Mom

Studies show that parents' eating patterns have a lasting effect on their children’s diet.  I am no different.  Recently, I’ve been cooking more callaloo than ever before, primarily because my mother grows it.  Each time I visited her during the summer, she had fresh callaloo.  Sometimes she would have just enough to give me a fresh bag to cook at home. 

Mom cooking pepperpot on the grill

Ways to Cook Callaloo

In the Caribbean, callaloo is traditionally cooked two ways.  The quick, simple way is to sauté it with a bit of onion, tomatoes, peppers, and okra.  Well, the okra is optional. Some also add fish or meat to the dish for flavor, but the callaloo is great all on its own. 

Another favorite is callaloo stew or pepperpot soup.  This soup typically has callaloo greens and other vegetables like a Caribbean pumpkin, coco or yucca root, sweet potato, okra, and cooking with coconut milk. Orka gives the pepperpot body and a nice flavor.  Many Jamaicans like to add dumpling os or “spinners” to the soup, which are made with flour or cornmeal. Pepperpot is also traditionally cooked with scotch bonnet peppers and includes seafood or some form of meat like beef.  

Cooking Like Our African Ancestors

The saute and soup cooking styles for callaloo or greens have their roots in West African culinary traditions.  In her cookbook Jubilee, award-winning author Toni Tipton-Martin explains that in many West African countries, “women and children gathered ‘bush greens,’ which were simmered with oil, peppers and seasonings or added to soups.”  This tradition of cooking “greens” was carried on by enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and passed down to their children. 

Similar to Green Gumbo

A similar culinary tradition for cooking greens was also maintained and carried on by African Americans in the south.  In Jubilee, Tipton-Martin includes a recipe for Green Gumbo or Gumbo Z’herbes, a green soup that traditionally includes a mixture of seven or more greens.

My mom told me that pepperpot can include a mixture of many greens as well.  In fact, the last time we made it, we combined both amaranth and sweet potato greens from her garden.  She also wished she had dasheen leaves to add to the pepperpot. 

Substitute for Callaloo

Since callaloo is often difficult to find in the United States, spinach is a good substitute.  Sometimes you can get authentic callaloo from African, West Indian, and Asian supermarkets.  You can also buy canned callaloo, which I tend to avoid because of the high sodium content. 

Connecting to the African Diaspora

Both callaloo and gumbo have a deeper connection than I had imagined. The discovery of this culinary connection all started with me cooking pepperpot with my mom.  I was also excited to learn from the history book In the Shadow of Slavery, that “callalou [callaloo] and gumbo are African words for African ingredients that lend the dishes their culinary definition. Each expresses the African preference for greens and the continuity of African cooking practices in the Americas.”

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