How To Make Delicious Guyanese Soup: Chicken Soup & Split Peas Soup

Soup is considered to be the first thing that someone goes to when they are sick. A nice hot, bowl of delicious soup usually soothes away any sickness that may come your way. Soup is also relished on a cold day to keep warm or in the evenings after a tiring and exhausting day. In Guyana, soup can be made in a variety of ways. This article will show you two ways in which soup can be made in Guyana.

What Is Soup?

Soup is a liquid dish typically made with a vegetable or meat stock. In includes a wide variety of vegetables like carrots, eddo, and meat and/or stock. These are all then boiled together to form a flavoursome broth. Soups can be hot or cold and are very similar to stew however, they usually contains more broth.

Making Soup Guyanese Style – Chicken Soup With Dumpling, Vegetables & Ground Provisions

Ingredients For Soup:

• 1 lb chicken, cut
• 1 pk Maggie Chicken Noodle
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 stalk scallions
• 2 eddoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 cup pumpkin, chopped
• 3 plantains, peeled and sliced
• 1 tsp all-purpose seasoning
• 1 pinch black pepper
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, sliced
• 2-3 ears of corn, peeled, washed and cut
• 6-8 callaloo 
• leaves 
• 1 wiri wiri pepper
• baking powder
• salt to taste
• oil
• water

Method:

1. Put barley to soak in a bowl.
2. Wash chicken and season with salt and all-purpose seasoning.
3. Heat some oil in a skillet.
4. Sautee onions and pepper.
5. Fry chicken until lightly browned.
6. In a large pot, put water to boil.
7. Add barley, eddo, plantain, and allow to boil for 30 mins. The ground provision should start to soften and melt. If they are still hard, boil for a few more minutes.
8. Prepare dough during the time. Mix flour, baking powder and water and knead to form a dough.
9. Add more water to make the dough soft.
10. Add callaloo leaves, scallions corn and chicken.
11. Add 1/2 of Maggi Chicken Noodle packet to soup. Taste and add more if necessary.
12. Allow noodles to boil until they become soft.
13. Next, break off pieces of dough and form into small balls and add to the pot. They should float to the top of the soup.
14. Sprinkle black pepper and salt and stir.
15. Cook for 5-10 minutes more then remove from heat.

Another Guyanese Soup – Split Peas Soup With Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 lb chicken, cut
• 1/2 pint cup of split peas, yellow
• 1 eddo, peeled and chopped
• 2 plantains, peeled and sliced
• 2-3 ears of corn, peeled, washed and cut
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 3 stalks eschalot
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 wiri wiri pepper
• black pepper
• salt to taste
• water

Optional: dumplings

Method:

1. Wash split peas and soak for an hour.
2. Wash chicken.
3. Heat oil in a skillet and sautee onions, celery eschalot and pepper.
4. Add chicken and cook until browned.
5. In a large pot of water, put the split peas to cook.
6. Add ground provision and allow to boil until soft.
7. Add chicken, corn, salt and black pepper.
8. Cook until the broth has thickened then remove from heat.

Tip: You can add ochro if you like.  

Watch This: Chicken Soup with Gound Provisions step by step Video Recipe I Real Nice Guyana

Soup In Guyana

Guyana is a diverse land filled with people from various backgrounds and cultures. Because of its vast diversity, the country is blessed with many different foods. Thus, the variety of ways soup can be made is clear evidence to show that everyone has their own special touch to their own pot of soup. It would be more common to find the East Indians making split peas soup or as some may say ‘dhal soup’ since they would often use dhal in their diet. As for the chicken soup with vegetables and ground provisions, it would have a more African twist to it since their diet consisted of things like metemgee or eddoes and plantains. Nevertheless, soup was really introduced by the Chinese who came to Guyana. Guyanese, as usual, came up with their own delicious version of soup and people of all backgrounds enjoy eating a hot plate of appetizing soup – whether chicken soup with ground provision or split peas soup with chicken.

Article References:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soup
• https://www.realniceguyana.com/recipes/barley-soup/
• https://guyanachronicle.com/2019/03/31/creole-split-pea-soup-recipe/

Last Updated: 2020-07-23