living in the woods and making stuff

Swati came to visit for Christmas, and she brought with her the idea for pumpkin soup. Joumou, a type of pumpkin soup, is traditionally prepared for Haitian Independence Day (incidentally New Years Day). Although it is traditionally served for breakfast in Haiti, we got around to eating it late in the afternoon, settled around the fire. We used several different recipes to come up with a yummy, vegetarian version of the soup. Probably a little different from the one Swati had in Haiti, but pumpkin soup all the same.

I started the soup with “winter broth” from The Greens Cookbook, by Deborah Madison. Winter broth is my absolute favorite comforting winter food. I added extra pumpkin (including seeds and peels) to the broth because it was intended for pumpkin soup. The main soup pumpkin came from the farmer’s market about 3 months ago! Talk about long-lasting. Swati rinsed the seeds and set them out to dry to save for my pumpkin patch next summer.

Then I sauteed a little onion in some olive oil and added cubed pumpkin, and winter broth to cover. I put the pot on the wood stove to simmer. When the pumpkin was tender, I pureed it and set it aside.

Meanwhile, I put a little oil in a new pot and added some freshly grated ginger, shallots, 2 cloves, and a few cloves of whole garlic, pierced with a knife. While these veggies cooked, I added celery, potato, and carrots, and a dried hot pepper from my friends garden!

After a few minutes I added some more broth and the pureed pumpkin and set the entire pot onto the wood stove to simmer until the veggies were tender. About 20 minutes, slowly boiling. Yum!!

In case you were wondering, the photos in this blog are particularly beautiful. Thanks to my resident photographer, Swati!