Vegan Soup Joumou, a tasty Haitian pumpkin soup that’s traditionally served on Haiti’s national day to celebrate independence.
A flavoursome and hearty soup, perfect for any season. Enoy with your favourite bread as a tasty lunch or a lighter meal.
Traditionally Soup Joumou uses pumpkin as its base ingredient. It is cooked and pureed before adding to the other ingredients. If you find pumpkin difficult to source out of season, we find butternut squash works equally as well and results in a lovely tasting soup.
Vegan Soup Joumou
A tasty Haitian pumpkin soup that’s traditionally served on Haiti’s national day to celebrate independence.
Ingredients
- 500 g pumpkin or butternut squash
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 20 g butter
- 1 medium yellow onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 stalk celery diced
- 1 medium leek thinly sliced
- 1 Scotch bonnet seeds removed and minced
- 2 medium carrots cubed
- 2 potatoes peeled and cubed
- 300 g turnip peeled and cubed
- 3 sprigs of fresh thyme
- 800 ml vegetable broth
- ¼ white cabbage shredded
- 50 g dry pasta
- Lime wedges for garnish
- Parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Peel and cut the pumpkin or squash into cubes. Place in a pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil then gently simmer until soft, around 15 minutes.
- Drain then blend the pumpkin until smooth in a blender or food processor. Set aside for later.
- Heat the oil and butter in a pan over medium heat. Once hot add the onion, garlic, celery, leek and Scotch bonnet. Add a pinch of salt then sauté gently until the onions and leeks are soft, around 8 minutes.
- Add the blended pumpkin or squash together with the carrots, potatoes, turnip and fresh thyme. Add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to a gentle simmer and cook until the potatoes and carrots are soft, around 15 minutes.
- Taste and adjust for seasoning. The amount of salt needed will depend on how salty your vegetable broth is. We added 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon cracked black pepper at this stage.
- If you want the soup to be thicker you can use a stick blender to blend some of the soup at this stage.
- Once you are happy with the consistency add the cabbage and pasta. Continue to simmer gently until the pasta is fully cooked, around 10 to 15 minutes.
- Taste and adjust for seasoning, remove the sprigs of thyme, then serve garnished with the parsley. Squeeze over a lime wedge before eating.
Tried this recipe?Mention @mikeronm or tag #theveganplanetkitchen!
I am a guy who loves soup and has been a vegetarian for 40 years. This is a brilliant soup!!! It was balanced, well flavored and filling. Do not make this soup unless you have a Scotch Bonnet. It’s very integral to the flavor! Thank you very much for posting this recipe and I will put this in my rotation! I am very much looking forward to trying your other recipes!!