Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Saint Lucian Bouyon
A one-pot soup-stew of salted pig tail, beans, ground provisions, dumplings, and greens in a coconut broth.
Saint Lucian · medium · serves 6
prep 40 min · cook 75 min
~587 cal · 41g protein · 67g carbs · 17g fat · 9g fiber · 11g sugars · 10g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Bouyon is Saint Lucia's great communal one-pot, a soup-stew that shows up whenever people gather, and by long habit it is a Friday or Saturday pot, since it takes most of a day. Its name comes from the French bouillon, a legacy of the island's shifting colonial past.
Everything goes into one pot: salted pig tail and fresh meat, red beans, ground such as yam, , and green fig, spinner dumplings, pumpkin, and leaves, all simmered together in a broth built on green seasoning and finished with , with a whole dropped in for aroma. It is a dish built to stretch and to feed a crowd.
Thick, filling, and warming, bouyon is convivial food meant to be shared from a big pot among friends and family. It is Saint Lucian togetherness in a bowl, resourceful and generous by nature.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy- and egg-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 6
1.5 lb salted pig tail, plus fresh beef or chicken
1.5 cups flour flour dumplings
1 cup red kidney beans, soaked overnight
1 cup
1 yam
1
3 green fig (banana)
2 carrot
1 cup pumpkin
1 bunch () leaves, or spinach
3 tbsp green seasoning (thyme, chives, garlic, culantro, seasoning peppers, blended)
1 tsp thyme
4 cloves garlic
3 scallion
1
Instructions
1
If you are using salted meat, soak it overnight, then boil it 10 to 15 minutes and drain, or the whole pot comes out too salty.
2
Boil the soaked kidney beans until tender, about an hour, and keep them in their liquid.
3
Fry the meat (or mushrooms) with the green seasoning, thyme, garlic, and scallion, then cover with water and simmer to build a broth.
4
Add the beans with their liquid, then the yam, dasheen, green fig, carrot, and pumpkin, and cook until tender.
✎ Chef’s note
Add the ground provisions in order of how long they take, starting with the firmest, so everything finishes tender at the same time rather than some turning to mush. Once the pumpkin is soft, mash a little of it against the side of the pot: that is what thickens a bouyon rather than any flour.
5
Roll the dumpling dough into small logs (spinners), drop them in, and cook until they float and firm up.
6
Pour in the coconut milk, add the dasheen leaves and the whole Scotch bonnet, and simmer 10 minutes more.
✎ Chef’s note
Leave the Scotch bonnet whole and lift it out before serving. Burst it and the pot is inedible.
7
Season well and serve piping hot in deep bowls.
Castries tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Castries. Green fig means green banana here and nothing else; the fruit fig has no part in it at all. Unripe bananas are boiled in their skins until the flesh turns firm and waxy, then tossed through salt cod that has been soaked and flaked, with onion, sweet pepper and thyme.
🗺️
Saint Lucia. Saint Lucian food is Creole and green-fig-loving, with the national dish of saltfish and green banana. French and African roots meet in bouyon stew, callaloo, and fiery local seasoning.
🌍
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 Saint Lucia
Green Fig and SaltfishSaint Lucia's national breakfast: boiled green bananas tossed with sautéed salted cod, peppers, and herbs.
Saint Lucian Pumpkin RiceRice simmered with sweet pumpkin, coconut, and island herbs into a soft, golden one-pot, an everyday Lucian lunch.
Coconut TurnoverSoft sweet yeasted dough folded around spiced, sticky grated coconut, a Saint Lucian bakery treat.
Browse all Saint Lucia recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
Make it a Saint Lucia meal
Sea MossDrink
Coconut TurnoverDessert
Saint Lucian Saltfish AccrasLunch
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Frequently asked questions
What is Saint Lucian Bouyon?
A one-pot soup-stew of salted pig tail, beans, ground provisions, dumplings, and greens in a coconut broth.
Where does Saint Lucian Bouyon come from?
Saint Lucian Bouyon is a Saint Lucian dish from Castries, Saint Lucia.
Can Saint Lucian Bouyon be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Saint Lucian Bouyon recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Saint Lucian Bouyon 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 count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), 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 Saint Lucian Bouyon take to make?
About 115 minutes total (40 minutes prep, 75 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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