The New Year is special for Haiti. It doubles as their Independence Day, the day that ended a 13 year long slave revolution against French colonists. Part of the Haitian celebration usually includes making and eating "soup joumou" or pumpkin soup. Before the revolution, the soup was made by Haitian slaves for their masters, but they were not allowed to eat it themselves. Eating this soup became a symbol of freedom and is eaten every January 1st.
Soup joumou starts out with pumpkin or another type of winter squash. I used butternut squash because that's usually my go-to for any recipe calling for "pumpkin."
The squash is cooked in boiling water until tender and then blended into a beautiful orange puree to form the base of the soup.
While the squash cooked, I started on the "epis" which is used in pretty much all Haitian dishes. It's a blend of herbs (cilantro, parsley), onion, garlic, bell pepper, and a few other ingredients.
I used some of the spice mixture to marinate the "meat" aka seitan.
Then I cooked the seitan in a pan with a little tomato paste to brown.
And then set to work chopping veggies. Generally this soup uses whatever vegetables the cook wants to put in, or whatever looks good at the market. I used cabbage, carrots, onions, potato, and celery. Turnips are also common.
All the veggies are then added to the pot with the rest of the spices mixture. Water is added to thin out the squash puree and boil everything together.
During the last few minutes of cooking, spaghetti (or whatever pasta is on hand) is added and cooked with the rest of the soup.
And then finally I added the seitan. In a non-vegetarian version, the meat probably would have cooked in the soup along with everything else. However, as I've probably mentioned before, seitan tends to get really chewy if you boil it too long, so I usually add it into soups at the very end of the cooking process.
The end result is a super hearty but healthy soup. A soup that holds a huge significance for the people of Haiti, so I can see why they continue the tradition!
Recipes Used: Soup Joumou // Epis
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