...and a New Year has begun!!!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

So today I wanted share a recipe with you all. Despite being in Minnesota for New Years this year, I decided that I still wanted to have the New Years day traditional soup. For those who don't know, I'm Haitian and on New Years day, we prepare Soup Joumou (Pumpkin Soup) which we feast on all day long. It's a real hearty soup, full of life and full of flavor. Whether you have it at home or at someone elses home...doesn't really matter....you just have to make sure you have it. Well, since I wasn't home this year I decided to just make a pot of it myself. No one in my family ever taught me how to make it, but I found a recipe about 2 years ago and gave it a try. In my usual fashion of not following recipes, I tweaked it and made it my own (it's still pretty true to it's name). Below is brief description on how this tradition got started (I only learned this a year ago after a curious co-worker of mines googled it).

ONCE UPON A TIME, the people of Haiti had special cause to celebrate on New Year's Day. It was January 1, 1804, and after a savage 13-year struggle against their French masters, they had at last achieved independence.
What better way to celebrate than with the very soup they had been forbidden as slaves to eat? Ahhh, soup made from joumou, the delicious and aromatic pumpkin, so different from their usual daily allotment of precisely one ounce of salted meat or fish and one bottle of lemonade. During the independence celebration that happy day, so the story goes, a huge kettle of pumpkin soup was made in the city of Gonaïves, and everyone present was served a bowl. Why? A special communion to forever forge the bonds of brotherhood and commit to a bright national future.


You can google the words Soup Joumou and you'll find several recipes. You'll also find that they all contain a core set of ingredients that don't change. The amounts may change, a few extra things may be added or removed, but all in all...it's relatively the same. With that being said, the recipe that I'm including below can definitely be tweaked to your own liking. FYI- Four people have had this recipe and they enjoyed it as well (although one felt the spaghetti noodles could have been omitted).


Soup Joumou (Pumpkin Soup)
1/2 c. - chopped onions ( i use yellow onions)
3 - minced garlics

1/3 c.- chopped red pepper
1/3 c. - chopped green pepper

2/3 c. - chopped celery
2/3 c. - chopped carrots

2 tsp - parsley
5 - sprigs thyme
1 tsp of each - Oregano powder, Chili powder, salt, black pepper
1/2 c. - chicken breast (cut into small cubes)
1/2 c. - beef (cut into small cubes)
1/2 - lime
2 pkgs - frozen Cooked Winter Squash (easier than using fresh pumpkin squash)
2-3 - medium sized potatoes (use one that's good for baking or mashing)
25 -/+ sticks of spaghetti broken into thirds (can use other pastas like penne or ziti)
*****optional - 1/4 - 1/2 - of a hot pepper such as scotch bonnet (habanero)****


STEPS :
- heat 2 tbs of oil (not olive) to a pot (should be at least 5qts). fire should be at medium
-add onions, garlic, red and green peppers. allow to soften (about 2mins)
-add celery, carrots, thyme, parsley, and spices. cook for about 3--5mins. You're not frying anything, you're just softening it.
-move veggies to one side of the pot. position the pot so tha the side with the veggies doesn't sit directly over the flames. by doing this you create a cool spot for the veggies so they don't burn.
-add the meats to the other side of the pot that is directly over the flame and allow meats to brown. This takes about 5-7mins. note that meat will not be fully cooked.
- squeeze in the juice from the lime and throw in the lime
-add 4 cups of water and the frozen blocks of squash. once completely melted remove the lime. If you're adding the hot pepper do so now.
-allow to boil for about on medium for 30mins.
- separate pot, boil the peeled potatoes. for faster boiling, cut in to smaller pieces. once they're done mash them with fork/potatomasher. the consistency shouldn't be smooth liked mashed potatoes. it should be course and there should be some chunks.
-add potatoes to soup. mashing them helps to thicken the soup a bit. Turn fire on low and cook for 15mins.
-add your pasta, cover and cook for 10 - 15mins. DONE!!!!

The consistency, is thicker than chicken soup. Depending on who makes it, it can be as thick at Oatmeal (YUCK). However, I like mines about as thick as split pea soup. More water makes it thinner, less water makes it thicker.