Cassava Soup from Suriname

A specialty

Surinam has immigrants from all over the World and they have all brought their different food habits and tastes. They even brought seeds and planted their own different vegetables, and between all of them, the Surinam traditional dishes were born. They are a mixture of flavors, from many different countries, marking thus, the special Surinam way of cooking.

Cassava (mandioca, manioc) is a root, which is a major source of carbohydrates and an annual crop. Making a soup with this root is a specialty of Surinam’s kitchen, mostly with all the additional ingredients added to give it this special flavor. You should know that some varieties of Cassava may have important levels of toxicity, so finding out which type of this root you will use and its safety indications before cooking it is important.

Recipe

Ingredients:

2 pounds cassava
Chicken broth, I liter
4 cloves of garlic
Olive oil, 4 spoons
1 pound shank
Salt, cumin, bay leaves
1 red pepper
3 Celery stems
1 pound smoked meat
Coconut milk (optional
Water (some 3 litters)
1 onion

Preparation:

Put the water in a pan, add the shank and the smoked meat cut in pieces and let it boil for some fifteen minutes.
Add the cassava, the red pepper cut in thin slices, the onion cut in thin slices also, the garlic cut too and all the other flavors. The celery cut into small pieces, the chicken broth and let all boil some 30 minutes. If you choose to add some coconut milk, add it ten minutes before it is finished cooking.
You can eat this soup with white rice on it, once you serve it on the dishes add the cooked rice.