Boil Up

About This Recipe

Boil Up is a quintessentially Belizean Saturday morning ritual — a big communal pot of mixed root vegetables (cassava, plantain, yam, sweet potato), salted fish or fresh fish, and boiled eggs, all cooked together in a seasoned broth with recao (culantro), garlic, and onion. It is the Belizean equivalent of a fry-up: the meal that gets families around the table on weekends, served with warm flour tortillas or fry jacks (fried dough). The name says it all — everything goes in the pot and gets boiled up together, making it one of the simplest, most honest, and most satisfying dishes in the Belizean repertoire.

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 300 gcassava, peeled and cut into large chunks
• 2green plantains, peeled and cut into rounds
• 200 gsweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
• 400 gsalted fish (bacalhau), soaked 12 hours, drained
• 4large eggs
• 1large onion, sliced
• 4 clovesgarlic, smashed
• 3 stalksrecao (culantro) or fresh cilantro
• 2 stalksfresh thyme
• 1scotch bonnet pepper, left whole
• 1.5 litreswater
• 1 tbspvegetable oil
• salt and black pepper(to taste)

Instructions

1. 1

   Build the broth

   In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Sauté onion and garlic for 3 minutes. Pour in the water. Add recao, thyme, and the whole scotch bonnet. Bring to a boil.

2. 2

   Add hard vegetables first

   Add cassava and green plantain to the boiling broth. These take the longest to cook. Simmer 15 minutes.

3. 3

   Add sweet potato and fish

   Add sweet potato chunks and the soaked, drained salted fish (cut into pieces). Continue simmering 15 minutes.

4. 4

   Boil the eggs

   Gently lower the whole eggs into the pot. Simmer for 10 more minutes until the eggs are hard-boiled and the vegetables are fully tender.

5. 5

   Remove and serve

   Carefully remove the eggs and peel them. Remove the whole pepper. Taste the broth and adjust salt. Serve everything in deep bowls with the broth poured over, accompanied by warm flour tortillas.

Variations

• •

  Use fresh fish fillets instead of salted fish for a lighter, fresher result.

• •

  Add pig tails alongside the fish for an Afro-Belizean Creole version.

• •

  Vegetarian: swap the protein for roasted king oyster mushrooms, smoked tofu or cooked chickpeas — adjust seasoning slightly upward to compensate.

• •

  Spicier: add a finely chopped fresh chile or a teaspoon of crushed Aleppo/Urfa pepper to the aromatics for warm, layered heat instead of a single sharp hit.

Storage

Best eaten fresh. Store leftovers in the broth in the fridge for up to 2 days; reheat gently.

Frequently Asked Questions