Soup Joumou

Name: Soup Joumou
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 1 h 40 min
Total time: 2 h 10 min
Yield: 1 serving
Ingredients: 100 g beef chuck or shank; 1 lime; 2 cloves garlic; 1 spring onion; 1 tbsp flat-leaf parsley; 2 sprigs fresh thyme; 2 whole cloves; 180 g calabaza or butternut pumpkin; 50 g potato; 40 g carrot; 20 g celery; 30 g white cabbage; 25 g onion; 20 g rigatoni; 1 tsp vegetable oil; 1 tsp butter; 700 ml water; 1 scotch bonnet chilli; salt; black pepper

Haiti's freedom soup: a golden pumpkin broth simmered with lime-washed beef, epis, root vegetables and rigatoni, traditionally eaten on 1 January to mark independence.

Snacks Lunch & dinner 25g+ protein 8g+ fibre

130 min30 prep · 100 cookMedium436 kcalper serving

Method

Put the 100 g of cubed beef in a bowl, squeeze over the juice of half the 1 and add a splash of cold water. Rub the meat well for a minute, then rinse under cold water and pat dry — this lime wash is how Haitian cooks clean meat before it goes near the pot.
Make a quick epis: crush 2 cloves of garlic with 1 tbsp of chopped parsley, 1 finely chopped spring onion and the stripped leaves of 2 sprigs of thyme to a coarse paste. Rub it through the beef with 2 whole cloves, a good pinch of salt and plenty of black pepper. Leave to marinate 30 minutes at room temperature.
While the meat marinates, put the 180 g of pumpkin in a saucepan with 350 ml of the water, bring to the boil and simmer, partly covered, for 25 minutes until the flesh collapses under a spoon. Blend or press through a sieve with its cooking liquid to a smooth, bright orange purée.