North America → Curaçao → Willemstad
🥙 LUNCH
Kadushi
A thick, green cactus soup with salted fish and okra, a truly local Curaçaoan dish born of the arid island.
Curaçaoan · medium · serves 4
prep 30 min · cook 40 min · plus 8 h hands-off time
~341 cal · 33g protein · 8g carbs · 19g fat · 2g fiber · 3g sugars · 5g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Kadushi is one of Curaçao's most authentically local dishes, a soup made from the kadushi cactus that grows all over the dry, sun-baked island. In a place where little else thrives, the resourceful cooking of the Antilles turned a spiny cactus into dinner.
The peeled cactus paddles are cooked down until they release a thick, -like mucilage that gives the soup its characteristic body. It is simmered with onion, garlic, and often salted fish or meat, and thickened further with a little cornmeal or .
Traditionally eaten with funchi, the local cornmeal , it is humble country food, the kind of dish grandmothers make and younger generations are working to keep alive. Nourishing and green, kadushi tastes of the island itself.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
- 1 lb cactus paddles (nopales) or kadushi, peeled and chopped
- 8 oz salted fish, soaked and flaked
- 8 oz salted beef (karni salá), soaked overnight and diced
- 1/3 cup dried shrimp
- 1 onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tomato, chopped
- 1 Madame Jeanette or pepper, left whole
- 2 tbsp oil
- to taste salt
Instructions
- 1Soak the salted beef overnight in plenty of water, then simmer it for half an hour while you prepare the cactus. Peel the cactus carefully to remove every spine, strip the skin and the white membrane, and chop the flesh.✎ Chef’s noteThe slipperiness is the whole point, not a fault. Kadushi is a slave dish invented when cooks who wanted okra for jambo found none on the islands and reached for the candle cactus instead, because it thickens a soup the same way.
- 2Soften the onion, garlic, and tomato in the oil, then add the cactus, the salted beef with its water, the dried shrimp, and enough water to cover generously.
- 3Simmer, stirring often, until the cactus has broken down and the soup turns thick and green, about 30 minutes.
- 4Add the flaked salt fish and warm through. Drop in the whole hot pepper once the soup is off the boil, and lift it out again before serving.
- 5Season with salt and serve hot with funchi, either alongside or cut into the bowl.
Curaçaoan country tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Willemstad. Willemstad's pastel Dutch waterfront is famous for keshi yena, a hollowed cheese wheel filled with spiced meat, olives, and raisins and baked until molten. Curacao cooking mixes Dutch, African, and Latin habits over Caribbean fish and funchi cornmeal.
🗺️
Curaçao. Curaçao's Dutch-Caribbean cuisine is famous for keshi yena, a shell of Edam cheese stuffed with spiced meat. Iguana stew, funchi cornmeal, and Latin, African, and Dutch roots define the ABC-island table.
🌍
North America. Almost every regional cooking here records who arrived and on what terms. Enslaved West Africans brought rice, okra, black-eyed peas and the techniques behind Lowcountry and Creole food; Chinese railway labour and later Italian, Jewish, Mexican and Vietnamese arrivals built the way the cities eat; and Indigenous foodways sit underneath all of it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Curaçao
Keshi YenaA shell of Edam or Gouda cheese stuffed with spiced chicken, olives, capers, and raisins, then baked until molten.
Arepa di PampunaSweet Curaçaoan pumpkin pancakes, spiced with cinnamon and anise and fried until lacy-edged, a Dutch-Caribbean morning treat.
Bolo PretuA dark, dense fruitcake of rum-soaked fruit and browning, the celebration cake of Curaçao and the Dutch Antilles.
Browse all Curaçao recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Soup keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and freezes well. Reheat gently and loosen with a little water or stock if needed.
Make it a Curaçao meal
Awa di LamunchiDrink
Bolo PretuDessert
Keshi YenaDinner
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Frequently asked questions
What is Kadushi?
A thick, green cactus soup with salted fish and okra, a truly local Curaçaoan dish born of the arid island.
Where does Kadushi come from?
Kadushi is a Curaçaoan dish from Willemstad, Curaçao.
Can Kadushi be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Kadushi recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Kadushi safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Kadushi take to make?
About 9 h 10 min in all: 30 minutes prep and 40 minutes cooking, plus 8 h of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 4.
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