SOUPE JOUMOU - PUMPKIN SOUP

- Meat spice rub (grind 4 garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon thyme, ¼ teaspoon pepper, and 2 sliced green onions into 2 teaspoons salt)
- 1-pound piece of boneless beef stew meat
- 16 cups (4 quarts) cold water
- 1 Scotch bonnet or habanero chile pepper, with stem attached
- 2 pounds pumpkin (or other winter squash like butternut), peeled and chopped
- 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
- 2 celery stalks with leaves, sliced lengthwise and cut into pieces
- 1 large onion, cubed
- 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 1 pound malanga, peeled and cubed (or substitute another pound of potatoes)
- 1 pound cabbage, chopped
- ¼ pound vermicelli or other thin pasta, broken into short lengths
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 limes, juiced, plus thick wedges of lime, for garnish
Instructions:
THIS is a fabulous stuffed soup—bright yellow-orange and sensuously African with an opulence of meat, vegetables, and the Caribbean bite of lime and chiles. In Kreyol, you’d say it was stuffed with dub, joumou, kawot, seleri, zanyon, nave, pomdete, malanga, and shou— and spiced with piman bouk, ten, lay, and sit-won.
- TO PREPARE
-  Rub the meat with the spice paste and let marinate at room temperature for 1 hour.
-  Prep the remaining ingredients as directed in the recipe list.
- TO COOK
- Bring the meat, water, and chile pepper to a boil in a large soup pot over medium heat, then reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, for 2 hours.
-  Add the pumpkin and carrots, cover the pot, and cook until very tender, about 20 minutes.
- Remove the meat and chile pepper from the pot, discarding the pepper. In a blender, puree the pumpkin and carrots in the broth, then pour back into the pot. When the meat is cool enough to handle, cut it into cubes and stir them into the soup.
- Add the celery, onion, turnips, potatoes, and malanga to the soup; bring it to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. Thin the broth with as much water as needed— it should not be too thick.
-  Add the cabbage and cook 15 more minutes. Thin the soup again with water, as needed.
-  Add the vermicelli and cook until tender. Thin the soup again with water, as needed. This is a soup full of thirsty ingredients.
-  Taste and correct for seasoning with salt and pepper. Stir in the lime juice. Turn off the heat, cover the pot, and let it sit until you are ready to serve it.
- TO SERVE
- Carefully bring the soup back to a simmer, stirring so the pumpkin doesn’t burn, and ladle the soup into bowls. Serve some lime wedges on the side for people to help themselves.