Soup Joumou (Haitian Freedom Pumpkin Soup) 🎃

Name: Soup Joumou (Haitian Freedom Pumpkin Soup)
Prep time: 60 min
Cook time: 90 min
Total time: 150 min
Yield: 2-4 servings
Cuisine: Haitian
Ingredients: 700 g beef on the bone (shank/short rib), cubed; 600 g pumpkin or squash (joumou, butternut works), peeled and chunked; 2 l water or light beef stock; 1 scotch bonnet pepper, whole (do not break it — aroma, not heat); For the epis: 1 bunch scallions; 1 bell pepper; 6 garlic cloves; 1 scotch bonnet (seeded for less heat); 2 tbsp each chopped celery; parsley; thyme; blended; 2 carrots; 1 small cabbage; 200 g spinach; 200 g malanga; yuca or potato; chunked; 2 tbsp oil; juice of 1 sour orange or 1 orange + 1 tbsp lime; salt and pepper; Optional: 1/2 cup ditinyul/pasta, a splash of clairin or rum, boiled egg halves to serve

Every January 1st, Haitian households make the soup the colonizers wouldn't let them eat: joumou — a mild West Indian pumpkin — once grown for the planter's table and denied to enslaved people. On the first day of independence in 1804, Haitians boiled and ate it openly, and have every New Year since. The soup is beefy and layered: marrow-rich bone stock, pumpkin melted halfway into the body, cabbage, carrots, spinach, malanga or potato, epis (Haiti's green seasoning blender-load) and citrus at the end, sometimes finished with a soak of rum or the traditional pasta-like ditinyul. It tastes like a Sunday stew with a national holiday inside it.

Caribbean Haitian ⏱ 150 min Intermédiaire

Méthode

1

Rub the beef with half the epis, citrus and salt; let it sit 30 minutes while you prep vegetables.
2

In a big pot, brown the beef in oil with the whole scotch bonnet, 8-10 minutes. Add water/stock, bring to a boil, skim well, simmer 60 minutes.
3

Add pumpkin and the rest of the epis; simmer 30 minutes — part of the pumpkin should melt to thicken the broth, part should stay in chunks. Mash some against the pot wall with your spoon to speed this.
4

Add root vegetables, carrot and cabbage; simmer 20 minutes. Then spinach for 5 minutes more. Season hard: salt, pepper, final citrus — it should taste bright, not flat.
5

If using pasta or ditinyul, cook separately and ladle soup over it in bowls. Serve steaming, New Year's glass of clairin nearby, egg halves on top if that's your house.

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