Jamaican Mutton Soup

soup with mutton and vegetables in a white bowl

Learn how to make delicious Jamaican mutton soup. A soup that is incredibly filling, boneless, flavoursome, hearty and made with a medley of root vegetables. This is another variation of Saturday soup.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Jamaican

Prep Time 25

Cook Time 1 20

Total Time 1 45

Servings people

Calories 522kcal

Author Charla

Ingredients

To pressure cook the meat

2-2½ lbs mutton (1.3kg) I used both boneless mutton/goat meat but bony meat works just fine.
7 cups water (1.6 litres)
2 tablespoon any red meat seasoning (30g) optional see notes i.e lamb, mutton, goat, beef

To cook the soup

1 lb yam (450g) white or yellow, chopped
1 cho cho chopped
1 medium potato I used sweet potato but Irish potato works too
1-2 medium carrot(s) chopped
3 scallion chopped
1 small onion chopped, optional
8 sprigs of thyme tied in a bundle
8 pimento berries
5 cups water (1.18 litres) leftover from pressure cooking the meat
5 cups mutton stock (1.18 litres) see the notes for the link
pumpkin soup mix I'm using 3tbsp of my homemade soup mix, see notes
scotch bonnet
black pepper, garlic powder and pink salt to taste

For the dumpling

2 cups gluten free flour (272g)
½ cup water (118ml) (approximately)
½ teaspoon pink salt (2.5g)

Instructions

To pressure cook the mutton

Add the mutton, sprinkle in the seasoning and pour the water into the instant pot
Secure the lid, select "meat mode" and adjust to 20 minutes then set the valve to "sealing".
Once the time is up, do a quick release and switching the valve to "venting" be careful as the steam will immediately shoot upwards, so keep your face away from the lid.
Remove any fat/scum/residue from the top of the mutton water with a spoon before using it.

To make the soup

Transfer 5 cups of water from pressure cooking, the 5 cups of mutton stock, along with the mutton to a stock pot and allow to boil (it will boil quickly, since half of the water is already hot).
Now add the vegetables/herbs - cho cho, yam, potato, carrot, scallion, onion (if using) pimento berries, thyme and the cock soup mix and stir then reduce the heat to medium/low.

To make the dumpling

Place the flour in a bowl with pink salt
Gradually pour the water into the bowl (you may not need all of it) until it's sticky enough to make a dough ball.
Pinch off a small amount of dough and roll in the palm of your hands to make "spinners" and make discs to make regular dumpling
Start to add them as you make them to the pot.
Once the dumpling is added, add the scotch bonnet, partly cover the pot (if it is possible) and allow to simmer for up to an hour (skim off any additional foam if needed). If you want the soup thicker, use the back of a spoon to mash some of the potato.
Do a taste test and adjust with pink salt, garlic powder and black pepper if needed

Notes

This is my Homemade Soup Mix that I use for the recipe. It is gluten free and has been updated to double up as pumpkin soup mix.
Feel free to use any cut of meat you want to, I used boneless but cuts of meat with bone works too.
Use a stock pot that holds at least 4 quartz/3 litres to avoid over spill.
While the mutton is pressure cooking, save yourself some time by peeling the vegetables. Have some water mixed with a few teaspoons of pink salt/lemon juice in a bowl and once you peel the vegetables leave them in the bowl of salt water as this will prevent discolouring.
Feel free to use whatever ground provisions you prefer. Each person has their preference and the ones I'm using may be different to what you use.
If you are using my homemade soup mix (prior to the updated version) then you might want to add ⅓ cup of pureed pumpkin (add this when making the soup) to give the soup some more colour/taste.
If possible I recommend adding the Mutton Stock, this will add tons of flavour.
A great alternative to my homemade Mutton stock is to add some stock cubes/bouillon/ You will want 3-4 cubes of either lamb/mutton/goat.
I'm using this Seasoning when pressure cooking the meat.

Nutrition