Callaloo

Callaloo is both the name of a leafy green plant, usually the leaves of taro or amaranth, and the name of the stew made from it that is cooked across much of the Caribbean, a dish that food historians describe as carrying both West African and Taino culinary roots. The word is thought to come from the Kimbundu term kalulu, referring to okra or a similar Angolan vegetable dish, though an alternative theory traces it to the Tupi word caa-ruru, meaning thick leaf. In Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada and Dominica, callaloo is typically made from taro leaves, also called dasheen bush, while cooks in Jamaica, Belize, St. Lucia and Guyana more often use amaranth, and it is commonly simmered with okra, coconut milk, crab, pumpkin, onion and seasoning peppers. Haiti's version is built around okra rather than a leafy green, and Guadeloupe and Martinique cook a crab callaloo served with Creole rice and salt cod, so the dish takes noticeably different forms from island to island even though it shares one name.