Pumpkin Soup Joumou

Photo: Zomppa

Ingredients

1 pound lb corned beef or 1 beef stew meat

– water

1 1/2 pounds pumpkin, peeled& diced

2 turnips, diced

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 sprig parsley

1 sprig thyme

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 cup milk

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon butter

3/4 cup rice, washed (uncooked, not instant)

salt

3/4 teaspoon pepper

4 teaspoons butter

1 bunch of spaghetti

Preparation

Put meat in a pot with generous amounts of water and bring to a boil for 1 hour.

When the meat is tender, add pumpkin, water, salt and pepper to the large pot and bring to a boil.

Add the potatoes and cloves to the pot.

Reduce the heat to medium and cover and simmer until the pumpkin is tender.

Add carrots, turnips, cabbage, nutmeg, lemon juice and salt and pepper.

Reduce heat to medium low and let it simmer.

Stir in the pasta, parsley and let it simmer as you prepare your serving bowls.

The wonderful thing about this soup is you can be creative. For example, if you have a wheat allergy, you can use rice spaghetti as a great alternative (be sure you use rice and not corn based products)! Some Haitians even add rice to their recipe.

Another idea – try roasting the pumpkin as well as butternut and acorn squash until golden in color. Sautee the roasted squash in a pan and add salt, pepper and a ½ teaspoon of Olive Oil for flavor. When ready, add roasted squash to pot of boiling meet and follow recipe above.