Caribbean Oxtail Soup with Dumplings

My Family’s Caribbean Oxtail Soup

In Guyana, soup is never a small thing. Every pot starts the same way: meat, seasoning, and ground provisions, simmered until the broth is rich enough to stand on its own. Growing up, my dad often made a pot of soup on Sundays. It was always the biggest pot we owned, filled to the brim with thick broth, ground provisions, and dumplings. When it was beef soup, it was hearty cuts of beef and bones, and oxtail often made an appearance. When I started cooking for my own family, oxtail was the easiest bone-in beef cut to come by (and the cheapest back then), and so the story of this oxtail soup began.

This oxtail soup is the version my family asks for most. The split peas melt into the broth and make it hearty, the cassava and plantain add body, and the dumplings (gluten-free for me) and corn make it a full meal in one bowl.

I cook it in two pots: the oxtail gets tender in the pressure cooker while the cassava simmers with onion, garlic, thyme, and salt in a big pot. That pot becomes the base of the soup, so nothing is wasted and the flavor builds the whole way through. It’s the kind of soup you want to take your time with.

For more oxtail, try my Paleo Oxtail Stew and Instant Pot Oxtail Stew.

Why You’ll Love This Oxtail Soup

• A full meal in one pot. Tender oxtail, ground provisions, corn, and dumplings, with nothing else needed on the side.
• Hearty and high in protein. Oxtail and split peas make this a soup that actually fills you up.
• Cook the oxtail your way. Instant Pot for speed, or the stovetop if you have the time.
• Even better the next day. The flavors deepen overnight, and it freezes well.

What Goes Into a Caribbean Soup

Every Caribbean soup I’ve ever made follows the same pattern. Once you know it, you can make this soup your own.

• Meat: oxtail here, but different cuts of beef, chicken, cow heel, pig feet or a mix all work.
• Seasoning: onion, garlic, thyme, and a few whole wiri wiri peppers for heat.
• Ground provisions: cassava, sweet potato, and plantain. Eddoes, dasheen, green fig, pumpkin or yam are great additions.
• A thickener: split peas, or provisions like potatoes that melt into the broth.
• The extras: dumplings, corn, some spinach or a few okras that turn soup into a meal.

Ingredients of Oxtail Soup

Each ingredient in this soup plays a vital role in creating a rich, flavorful, and satisfying dish. Here’s how everything works together:

• Oxtail: collagen from the bones gives the broth its rich, silky body. Trim the thick outer fat, but leave some for flavor. If you can, have your butcher trim it and cut it into 1½- to 2-inch pieces.
• Yellow split peas: they break down as they cook and thicken the broth. They also add protein.
• Frozen cassava (yuca): the most efficient option, already peeled and cut. Find it in the freezer section of Latin, Asian, and Caribbean markets, and many regular grocery stores. Fresh works too.
• Aromatics: onion, garlic, and fresh thyme season the soup base from the start. Steak seasoning goes on the oxtail before it cooks, and a little onion powder and garlic powder season the extra water added with the sweet potatoes.
• Sweet potato, white sweet potato, and plantain: for sweetness and body. White sweet potatoes are the Caribbean standard; the orange ones are for my youngest. Use firm yellow plantains so they hold their shape.
• Corn: cut into 1½- to 2-inch rounds.
• Dumplings: the same dough as my Guyanese Duff, made with all-purpose flour, a little brown sugar, baking powder, butter, and warm water, shaped smaller for soup.
• Wiri wiri peppers: added whole for gentle heat. Swap in a Scotch bonnet or habanero.

See recipe card for quantities.

How to Make Caribbean Oxtail Soup

This soup comes together in two pots: one for the oxtail, one for the soup base. Then everything finishes together in the big pot.

How to Time It

My dad’s version of this soup took all day, with him busy in the kitchen from start to finish. With the Instant Pot, it’s on the table in under two hours. The oxtail cooks and releases pressure on its own while you prep everything else, a calm workflow that’s perfect for first-time soup makers.

Cook the Oxtail

If you live near a West Indian grocery or have access to a good butcher, ask them to trim the fat and cut the oxtail into 1½- to 2-inch-thick pieces, which cook faster and more evenly. I don’t have that luxury here, so I trim prepackaged oxtail myself before cooking.

Trim the thick layers of fat from the oxtail and season it with steak seasoning. Add it to the Instant Pot with the rinsed split peas, half the onion, garlic, and thyme, and 6 cups of water, enough to cover the oxtail. Cook on Max (or High) pressure for 45 minutes, then turn off Keep Warm and let the pressure release naturally (about 20 minutes). Quick release can spray fatty liquid, so be patient here.

No pressure cooker? Simmer the oxtail, covered, on the stove for 2½ to 3 hours, until fork-tender. Check the water now and then, and top it up so the oxtail stays covered.

Prep the Provisions

Peel the sweet potatoes and plantains and cut them into manageable pieces. In the Caribbean, provisions usually go into soup in big chunks, with most servings getting one piece of each. I cut mine into 1- to 1½-inch pieces so they cook evenly and fit on a spoon.

Keep the cut provisions in a bowl of room-temperature water until you’re ready to cook. This keeps them from drying out or browning. While you’re prepping, make the dumpling dough too, so it has time to rest before you shape it.

Start the Base of the Soup

When the Instant Pot beeps and the pressure is releasing, start the soup base. Add the frozen cassava, corn rounds, the rest of the onion, garlic, and thyme, and 1 teaspoon of salt to a large, deep stockpot. Pour in just enough water to cover the cassava and corn, about 4 cups for me. Cover, bring to a boil over high heat (about 10 minutes), and cook for 5 minutes.

If your frozen cassava came in large chunks, lift them out, carefully remove the inner vein with a fork, cut them into manageable pieces, and return them to the pot. Then drain the sweet potatoes and add them while the oxtail finishes releasing pressure, which saves time. Pour in enough extra water to cover them, season the water with the onion powder and garlic powder, and cook for 10 minutes.

In the Caribbean, we usually cook with white sweet potatoes (or Japanese sweet potatoes). But my youngest loves orange American sweet potatoes, so they go in the pot too, or there will be a scene at the dinner table.

Partially cooking the cassava first makes the woody vein easy to pull out and the pieces easy to cut.

Bring it together

When the cassava and sweet potatoes are fork-tender, add the plantains and keep cooking. It’s okay if some of the provisions melt into the broth. In fact, that’s the goal: it’s what makes the soup thick and hearty.

How to Store and Reheat Oxtail Soup

Store cooled leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days, or freeze for up to 3 months. The dumplings soften in the freezer, so you may want to freeze the soup without them.

Thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat on the stove over medium heat. Add a splash of water, since the split peas thicken the soup as it sits.

Tips for the Best Oxtail Soup

• Trim, but don’t overtrim. Remove the thick fat so the broth isn’t greasy; what’s left renders and adds flavor.
• Skim after the oxtail cooks. A spoon works, or chill the broth and lift off the fat if you’re cooking ahead.
• Cut the provisions evenly so everything is tender at the same time.
• Use firm plantains. Very ripe ones turn mushy in a long-simmering soup.
• Keep the peppers whole for flavor without overwhelming heat. Pierce one if you want it spicier.
• Season in stages. Taste once the oxtail broth is in the pot, then adjust the salt. I season with a little onion powder and garlic powder instead of bouillon cubes, which so many Caribbean cooks love, but I skip them because of the fillers and mystery “natural flavors.”
• Skip the boxed broth. While instinct says to reach for store-bought broth, that’s not how Caribbean soup is made. All those oxtail bones make a rich broth on their own, and boxed stock brings celery, carrots, and other flavors that pull the soup away from what it should taste like.