Caribbean Seafood Soup (Creamy, No Dairy, 30g Protein)

Why This Caribbean Seafood Soup Works

The base is vegetables, not a roux. Two pounds of sweet potato boil down with zucchini and squash until they fall apart. Blend that, and you get body and a little sweetness without flour or cream.

Light coconut milk goes in at the end, split in two. Half in the blender for silk, half stirred in off the heat so it stays bright instead of cooking flat.

The seafood gets its own seasoning and only a 3-minute simmer at the end. Shrimp and scallops overcook in seconds. The pot does the work first, then you drop in the seafood and turn off the burner.

The scotch bonnet goes in whole. You get the fruit and the smell of the pepper without the burn. Want heat? Pierce it. That one choice makes this a soup most people can eat, and a few people can crank up.

The Freezer Problem

I’ve done a lot of Cajun lately, so I didn’t want another gumbo. I wanted something creamy without cream, and I wanted it to feel like the islands. Sweet potato does the heavy lifting here.

Boil it down with zucchini, squash, and onion, then blend it with a little light coconut milk for a base that’s silky without a drop of dairy or flour. Allspice, thyme, ginger, and a whole scotch bonnet floating in the pot take it to the Caribbean. I’m not calling it jerk because it’s not jerk. It’s jerk-adjacent, and it’s darn good.

I added the crab legs for one reason: flavor. Sweet potato soup doesn’t taste like the ocean on its own, so I simmered two legs in the broth and pulled them out. You can skip them.

The salmon never touched the pot. I’d already cooked it for the week, so I flaked it over each bowl. That’s the meal prep play. Make the soup, keep your protein separate, build the bowl when you eat. Nothing gets rubbery on day three.

I found leftover octopus and calamari in the freezer.  Once thawed, I added them for the same 3 minutes at the end as the shrimp and scallops. Calamari rings cook fast and go rubbery if you walk away, so the burner goes off the second the shrimp turn pink.

Ingredients

Makes 6 servings

Seafood

• 8 oz raw shrimp, peeled
• 6 oz scallops
• OPTIONAL – mixed seafood (calamari rings, octopus, whatever’s in the bag)
• Seafood seasoning: 1 tbsp Taco Titan (salt-free), 1 tsp allspice, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tbsp dried onion flakes, 1/2 tsp dried thyme, 1/2 tsp salt
• OPTIONAL – 2 crab legs, for the broth
  
• Optional: 2 crab legs, for the broth

Veggie base

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 6 scallions, whites and greens separated
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
• 6 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 2 lb sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• 1 medium zucchini, chopped
• 1 medium yellow squash, chopped
• 5 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 whole scotch bonnet or habanero, uncut
• 1 can (13.5 oz) light coconut milk
• 1 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
• Juice of 1 lime
• 2 cups frozen green peas
• 1 tbsp coconut brown sugar
• Salt to taste

Steps

1. Mix the seafood seasoning. Toss the shrimp and scallops in it and set aside.
2. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium. Add onion, scallion whites, garlic, ginger, and thyme sprigs. Cook 4 to 5 minutes until soft.
3. Add allspice, cinnamon, and 2 tsp brown sugar. Stir for 30 seconds.
4. Add the sweet potato, zucchini, squash, bay leaves, broth, the whole pepper, and the crab legs (if using). Bring to a boil, then simmer 30 minutes until the sweet potato falls apart. Pull the crab at 15 minutes and set aside.
5. Pull the pepper, thyme stems, and bay leaves. Blend in batches with half the coconut milk, blender half full, lid vented with a towel on top. Blend until silky. (Immersion blender works too; see tips.)
6. Return to the pot over low heat. Stir in the remaining coconut milk. Add soy sauce, lime juice, and coconut brown sugar. Taste, then salt.
7. Add the shrimp, scallops, mixed seafood (if any), and peas. Simmer 3 minutes until the shrimp are pink and the scallops are opaque.
8. Serve topped with scallion greens and a squeeze of lime. Add your protein on top (see the meal prep breakdown below).

Nutrition per serving (soup only): 380 cal, 21g protein, 51g carb, 11g fat, 9g fiber, 680mg sodium

Meal Prep Breakdown

The salmon is a meal prep move, not a recipe step. I made this soup the same week I had salmon in the fridge, so I flaked it on top. That’s the whole trick. The soup is the base. Whatever protein you already prepped goes in the bowl when you eat it, not in the pot. Keeps the protein from going rubbery on reheat and lets you change it up through the week. Salmon, chicken, shrimp, whatever you’ve got.

If you want to cook salmon for this, here’s how I do it four ways: Salmon 4 Ways. Two ounces of flaked salmon adds about 110 calories and 12g protein to a bowl.

Why the crab, and why it’s optional. The crab legs are there for the broth, not the bowl. Simmering them in with the sweet potatoes pulls that seafood flavor into the base, which a sweet potato soup doesn’t have on its own. Pull them at 15 minutes so the meat doesn’t go stringy, then pick it and add it to your bowl or save it. Skip them and the soup still works. It’s a little less “ocean,” that’s it. I left them off the nutrition since not everyone’s buying crab.

How I run the week:

• Sunday: Make the full pot. Cool it, then portion 6 containers. Keep the scallion greens and lime separate.
• Protein: Cook it separately. 2 oz on top of each bowl takes a serving to roughly 33g protein.
• Fridge: 4 days. The shrimp and scallops are already cooked, so eat those bowls first.
• Freezer: Freeze the blended base before the seafood and peas go in. Thaw, bring to a simmer, then add fresh seafood for 3 minutes. Up to 3 months.

FMC Tips

Immersion blender. Easier and no hot-liquid-in-a-blender risk. Downside is it won’t get as silky. Blend longer than you think you need to, and tilt the pot so the blade stays under the surface. For a restaurant-smooth texture, use the countertop blender.

Heat. Whole, uncut pepper gives aroma only. Pierce it or chop it in if you want the burn.

Reheat low on the stovetop and stir. The coconut base can look separated after microwaving. Stirring fixes it.

Seafood timing. Three minutes means three minutes. Pull the pot off the burner when the shrimp turn pink. They keep cooking in the hot soup.

Substitutions

• Taco Titan: Use 1 tsp chili powder plus 1/2 tsp smoked paprika and 1/2 tsp cumin. Watch the salt if your blend has it.
• Scallops: More shrimp, or firm white fish in chunks (cod, halibut). Same 3-minute simmer.
• Sweet potato: Butternut squash works. Calabaza or kabocha if you’ve got it. Same weight, same simmer.
• Light coconut milk: Full-fat makes it richer and adds about 60 calories a bowl. Go lighter with half coconut milk, half broth.
• Chicken broth: Seafood stock if you want more ocean. Vegetable broth if you’re keeping the crab out.
• Scotch bonnet: Habanero is the easy swap. No fresh peppers? Skip it. A pinch of cayenne at the end is not the same, but it works.
• Soy sauce: Coconut aminos or tamari to keep it gluten-free.
• Peas: Frozen corn, or skip them and add diced bell pepper with the seafood.

Make It, Then Tell Me

The seasoning that starts this soup is in the shop. Get my spices while they last and run this one on Sunday!