Callaloo substitute

Best substitute

Mature Bunched Spinach

Use the same amount by weight as the callaloo you are replacing

Best for Jamaican steamed callaloo

Different texture

Use mature bunched spinach, not baby spinach, at 1:1 by weight, and cook it a little longer than you think. For Jamaican-style steamed callaloo that is a very close swap. For Trinidadian callaloo soup, spinach on its own comes out thin, so add 5 or 6 sliced okra with it to bring back the slightly silky body that dasheen leaves give, or look for frozen chopped taro leaves in a Caribbean freezer case. Swiss chard and collard greens both work too, chard being earthier and collards needing about twice the cooking time.

Other callaloo substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Amaranth Greens (Chinese Spinach, Bhaji)
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
The same plant Jamaican callaloo is made from, sold in Chinese, Indian and African markets as Chinese spinach, een choy, bhaji or African spinach.
What changes
Best for
Jamaican steamed callaloo, callaloo rice, any recipe calling for callaloo bush
Not a substitute so much as the correct ingredient under a different label, and the best reason to walk into an Asian grocer rather than a supermarket. Strip the leaves and tender upper stems and discard the woody lower stems. The red-leaved variety is equally good but will tint the pot and any coconut milk a dusky pink, which is harmless and normal. It behaves exactly like callaloo because it is callaloo, so no adjustments are needed.
3Frozen Dasheen or Taro Leaves, or Canned Callaloo
Close match
Use the same amount by weight, or one 19 oz can per lb of fresh greens
Chopped taro leaves sold frozen in blocks in Caribbean, West African and Pacific Island grocers, sometimes labelled dasheen bush, and pre-cooked canned callaloo sold alongside canned ackee.
What changes
Best for
Trinidadian callaloo soup, Grenadian oil down, Guyanese callaloo, coconut-based greens
This is the right ingredient for Eastern Caribbean callaloo and nothing else reproduces it exactly, because taro leaf brings a faintly slippery, thickening quality that turns the soup velvety. Cook it from frozen straight into the simmering coconut milk. One firm rule: taro leaves must be cooked thoroughly, at least thirty to forty minutes, never raw or briefly wilted, because raw taro leaf contains sharp calcium oxalate crystals that make the mouth and throat itch. Long cooking with something acidic, such as the traditional squeeze of lime, breaks them down completely. Canned callaloo is the same leaf already cooked, so it needs only five minutes in the pot, but it is soft, dark and uniform, closer to creamed spinach than to a plate of steamed greens, and it is salty from the packing liquid, so drain it, rinse it and taste before salting.
4Spinach Plus Okra
Close match
Use 1 lb spinach plus 5 to 6 okra for every lb of callaloo called for
A two-part swap that copies both parts of what dasheen leaf does in a Trinidadian callaloo.
What changes
Best for
Trinidadian and Guyanese callaloo soup, oil down, coconut milk greens, callaloo with crab
The most useful trick on this page. Trinidadian callaloo is not just a green soup, it is a slightly viscous one, and the body comes from the taro leaf. Spinach alone gives you a watery green puree that tastes flat. Slice the okra into rounds, simmer them with the spinach and coconut milk for twenty minutes and blend or swizzle the pot, and you get a soup that is convincingly silky. Most Trinidadian recipes include okra anyway, so this is less of a cheat than it sounds. Expect a faintly grassy okra note, which lime juice at the end handles.
5Swiss Chard
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
Broad-leaved chard with thick coloured stems, widely available year round.
What changes
Best for
steamed callaloo, callaloo with saltfish, greens with coconut milk, side dishes
A sturdier stand-in than spinach and better if you want something that still has bite on the plate. Chard is more mineral and slightly more bitter than callaloo, with an earthy beet-like edge that comes from the same plant family, so it reads as a firmer, more assertive green. Slice the stems and start them three or four minutes before the leaves, since they need the extra time. Rainbow or red chard bleeds colour into coconut milk and turns it pink-grey, so choose green-stemmed chard if that bothers you.
6Collard Greens
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight, roughly double the cooking time
Thick, flat, dark green leaves, the standard sturdy green in most American supermarkets.
What changes
Best for
long-simmered callaloo soup, oil down, greens with smoked meat, one-pot rice dishes
Reliable but the least similar of the green swaps. Collards are much tougher and taste distinctly of cabbage and sulphur, so a quick steamed callaloo made with them comes out chewy and noticeably more brassica-heavy. They shine in the long-cooked version: shred them fine, cut out the thick central rib, and give them twenty-five to forty minutes in coconut milk with thyme and scotch bonnet, at which point they go silky and much sweeter. Because they hold their shape, they also survive reheating better than spinach, which turns grey.

What is Callaloo?

Callaloo is A Caribbean leafy green, and also the dish made from it, meaning amaranth leaves in Jamaica and dasheen or taro leaves in Trinidad, Guyana and the Eastern Caribbean, and sometimes spelled calaloo or callalloo.

Cooking tips

Work out which callaloo your recipe means before you shop, because the two are quite different dishes. Jamaican callaloo is amaranth leaves steamed briefly with onion, scallion, thyme, tomato and scotch bonnet, served as a side or with saltfish. Trinidadian, Guyanese and Grenadian callaloo is a thick soup of dasheen or taro leaves cooked down with coconut milk, okra, pumpkin and often crab or salt meat. Spinach suits the first; spinach plus okra suits the second.
Never use taro or dasheen leaves raw or barely wilted. They must be simmered right through, at least half an hour, because raw taro leaf contains needle-shaped oxalate crystals that irritate the mouth and throat. Thorough cooking plus the traditional finish of lime juice removes the problem entirely, which is exactly why every traditional recipe cooks it so long.
Squeeze the water out. Callaloo, and every green you might swap for it, holds a lot of liquid, and a watery pool on the plate is the difference between a good steamed callaloo and a disappointing one. Cook it uncovered at the end, or press it in the pan with the back of a spoon and pour the liquid off.
Keep the three flavour anchors and the swap will pass: scallion, fresh thyme and a whole scotch bonnet dropped in and fished out before it bursts. Coconut milk goes in for the soup version, not usually the steamed one.
Chop the stems and use them rather than binning them. Callaloo stems are tender and slightly sweet, and they give the dish texture. Whatever you substitute, slice the stems thin and start them a few minutes ahead of the leaves.
A pound of raw greens cooks down to roughly a cup and a half, so buy far more than looks sensible. Two big bunches feeds four people as a side.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave callaloo out?

Only if it is a minor component. In an oil down or a mixed one-pot it is one vegetable among several and the dish still works without it. In callaloo soup or steamed callaloo it is the dish, so leaving it out is not an option, and you should use spinach, chard or collards instead. Note that many recipes count on the greens for body as well as flavour, so if you drop them the pot will come out thinner as well as blander.

Is callaloo the same as spinach?

No, and it is not even one plant. In Jamaica callaloo is amaranth, a mild green with tender stems, sold elsewhere as Chinese spinach or bhaji. In Trinidad and Guyana callaloo means the leaf of the taro or dasheen plant, and also the coconut soup made from it. Spinach is a decent substitute for both because it is mild and cooks down similarly, but it is a different plant and gives less body.

What is the best substitute for callaloo in Trinidadian callaloo soup?

Frozen chopped taro or dasheen leaves if you can get them, since they are the actual ingredient. Failing that, spinach with five or six sliced okra per pound, simmered in coconut milk and then blended or swizzled. The okra is doing real work: it restores the slightly silky, thickened quality the taro leaf provides, without which the soup tastes like blended spinach.

Can I use frozen spinach for callaloo?

Yes, and it is a sensible pantry option. Thaw it and squeeze it hard in a clean towel, because frozen spinach carries an enormous amount of water and will flood the pan. Use about 10 oz frozen for a pound of fresh. Add it after the aromatics are cooked and give it five minutes, no more. The texture is soft and uniform rather than leafy, so it suits soup and patty filling better than a steamed side.

Why does my callaloo taste bitter?

Usually one of three things. Older, larger leaves and thick stems are more bitter than young growth, so strip the woody stems out. Undercooked taro leaf tastes sharp and prickly rather than bitter and needs longer simmering. And a scotch bonnet that has broken open in the pot releases both heat and a bitter seed note, so add it whole and remove it before serving. A squeeze of lime at the end balances any remaining edge.

Related substitutes

More vegetables & aromatics substitutes

Callaloo substitute

Other callaloo substitutes

2Amaranth Greens (Chinese Spinach, Bhaji)

3Frozen Dasheen or Taro Leaves, or Canned Callaloo

4Spinach Plus Okra

5Swiss Chard

6Collard Greens