Cow Heel Soup

Carribean Cow Heel Soup is comfort in a bowl! Cow heel, ground provision and split peas boiled together in a deliciously satisfying broth.

Cow Heel Soup

Growing up in Guyana, my dad always made soup on Sundays. Sunday soup was a delicious thing that happened with frequency. The soup ingredients varied but that bowl of soup always brought comfort after a day of laundry and weekend chores. The sight of that “big pot of soup” on the stove was always a welcoming one.

You may also like my Chicken Foot Soup Recipe.

Why You’ll Love This Guyanese Cow Heel Soup Recipe

• Comfort Food: Hot soup is a great way to keep warm and cozy during the winter. This soup is especially hearty with cow heel, split peas, and ground provision.
• Easy to Make: Instant pot cow heel soup is easier to proper than a stovetop recipe. It also reduces the cooking time.
• So Versatile: This is what makes Caribbean soups so tasty! There is no real recipe and you can add a handful of this or a handful of that for a different version of this soup, every time you make it.

Does cow heel have collagen?

Cow heel or cow feet is loaded with nutrients especially collagen. If you’ve ever eaten cow heel/trotters/foot/feet then you know it has a sticky feel. That stickiness is collagen. There are so many health benefits to having collagen in your diet. Collagen is the glue that holds your bones together and it helps to promote good skin health. It also promotes good gut health and is why bone broth is so good for you. Learn more about collagen here and then make a bowl of this collagen filled soup and dive in!

Ingredients for Cow Heel Soup

The two main ingredients in this soup are cow heel and split peas. The two ingredients form a beautiful base for this hearty soup.

• Split peas: Split peas add a delicious texture to the soup broth. It also increases the amount of plant based protein in the soup.
• Cow heel or cow feet: Although they don’t have much meat, they are rich with flavor and bone marrow, which adds a geletinous consistency.
• White vinegar: Rinsing the cow heel with vinegar helps to remove any impurities or smell.
• Ground provision: Use any combination of provision; peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces (for this recipe I use 2 sweet potatoes, 2 yellow plantains, 3 eddoes, and 1 purple sweet potato).
• Chopped spinach: You can use frozen or fresh spinach.
• Aromatics: Diced yellow onion, fresh thyme, and sliced garlic cloves are a delicious foundation of flavor.
• Seasoning: Season simply with salt and black pepper.
• Wiri wiri peppers: This is an optional garnish that adds a kick of spice. (You may substitute with habanero pepper.)
• Water: This is the liquid base of your broth.

See recipe card for quantities.

Ground Provision in Caribbean Cow Heel Soup

The other key ingredients are root vegetables and tubers, also called ground provision in Guyana and the Caribbean. Any combination of starchy tubers will work. I love adding sweet potatoes, cassava (yuca), eddoes (malanga) and plantains (although not a tuber it’s always included as ground provision). You are free to use any combination of ground provision you like.

How to Make Cow Heel Soup

Soak Cow Heels

Immerse cow heel in a mixture of vinegar and water, allowing it to soak for approximately 15 minutes; subsequently, rinse thoroughly and set aside.

Prepare Soup in Instant Pot

Then combine cow heel, split peas, onion, garlic, thyme, water, and salt in the instant pot or a conventional pressure cooker. Seal and pressure cook on high until the cow heel/feet reach tenderness, approximately an hour in the instant pot.

Release pressure (using the rapid release method for the instant pot), then add your ground provisions, whole wiri peppers or habanero pepper, and frozen spinach if applicable (adding fresh spinach later).

Thoroughly mix and continue cooking on medium heat for a traditional pressure cooker or sauté mode for an instant pot. Cook until root vegetables are fork-tender and the broth slightly thickens.

If using fresh spinach, add it at this point, mixing it into the broth. Then let the soup simmer for an additional 5 minutes before removing it from heat. Serving the soup warm.

Storage

Store cooled coup in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days. For longer storage, freeze it for up to 3 months. Thaw frozen soup in the fridge overnight. The best way to reheat cow heel soup is on the stovetop over medium heat.

Recipe Substitutions & Variations

• Stovetop: Boil cow heels for at least 1 hour to soften them. Then add cleansed and softened cow heel, split peas, onion, garlic, thyme, water and salt to the pot. Simmer for about 2.5 hours or until the root vegetables are tender.
• Slow Cooker: Boil the cowl heel for at least an hour. Then add the ingredients from step 2 to the slow cooker and cook on high for about 3 hours.
• Additions: Consider adding small dumplings for an even heartier soup. Alternatively, use less ground provision.

Tips for the Best Cow Heel Soup

• Always clean cow heel before cooking. This removes any dirt or debris so it doesn’t end up in your soup.
• Although using an Instant Pot reduces the cooking time, this recipe still takes some time. Cow heel is very tough so it takes time to tenderize.
• The soup thickens the longer it sits.

Frequently Asked Questions

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