soup joumou

soup joumou, traditional Haitian soup made with beef, winter squash, and vegetables. It is typically eaten every year on January 1 to commemorate Haiti’s independence from France in 1804. The soup also serves as a Sunday breakfast dish. Preparation of the soup is usually a family or community activity. The dish is so central to Haitian cuisine that it was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list in 2021, the first such inclusion from Haiti.

Historical role and significance

Soup joumou’s origins and significance can be traced to Haiti’s colonial past. Christopher Columbus claimed the island of Hispaniola for Spain after landing there in 1492, and in 1697 Spain ceded its claims to the island’s western portion to France. The French colony, then called Saint-Domingue, utilized a plantation system that relied on slave labor to grow coffee, tobacco, and sugar, and it profited greatly from its nearly 800,000 enslaved Africans. Enslaved people grew joumou, which is the Haitian Creole word for “squash” or “pumpkin,” and used it as the base of the soup. However, during the 17th and 18th centuries, the dish became a status symbol: Although enslaved people grew the squash and prepared the soup, the dish was reserved for the upper class, primarily the slave owners.

Following the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804), the newly independent country took the name Haiti (derived from the Arawakan place-name Ayti, meaning “Mountainous Land”) and reclaimed soup joumou. Legend has it that when the colony declared independence from France on January 1, 1804, Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicité Bonheur Dessalines, wife of revolutionary leader and first Haitian emperor Jean-Jacques Dessalines, made soup joumou for the newly freed people. The dish is typically eaten for breakfast every year on January 1 to commemorate the 1804 event and is often used for all three meals that day. It is sometimes also eaten on January 2, which is recognized in Haiti as Ancestors’ Day in remembrance of the Haitian revolutionaries.

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Preparation of the soup involves both family and community, with everyone helping to make the dish—from growing and chopping vegetables to crafting the pots and utensils used to cook and serve it. The soup is especially popular among the Haitian diaspora. Soup joumou’s cultural significance was explored in the 2015 documentary Liberty in a Soup by director Dudley Alexis, who traveled to Haiti and to Haitian diaspora communities to explore the dish and its importance in Haitian history and culture. The 2021 addition of soup joumou to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list was seen as a moment of pride by Haitians across the world, coming in the wake of a political assassination and a severe earthquake that threw the country into political turmoil and devastated its economy.

Recipe and preparation

Soup joumou is considered essential to Haitian cuisine, and, though the recipe has changed over the years and varies across regions, families, and households, the core ingredients have remained the same: winter squash, beef marinated in epis, and vegetables. The squash traditionally used is called giraumon—also known as turban squash or calabaza, among other names—but other winter squashes such as butternut may be used. Some contemporary recipes have included potatoes, pasta, or dumplings; vegetarian versions of the soup also exist. That there are multiple variations of the dish has led to debates over what ingredients the “original” or “authentic” version of the dish contained.

Preparation of the soup starts with epis, one of the staples of Haitian cuisine. Epis is a seasoning blend made by pureeing a mix of sweet peppers, onion, scallions, salt, and garlic; it sometimes includes parsley, vinegar, celery, and thyme. The beef is rubbed with vinegar and lime and then marinated in the epis for as many as 12 hours. The squash is cut into pieces and boiled, pureed, and set aside. Then the beef and its marinade are added to the stewpot and cooked until the meat is tender. The squash puree is stirred in with tomato sauce. Vegetables such as leeks, onion, cabbage, turnips, celery, and carrots are added, as well as seasonings such as black pepper, thyme, parsley, hot peppers, cloves, salt, and garlic powder. The soup is cooked until the vegetables are tender. Pasta or dumplings, if part of the family’s recipe, are added in the last 15 minutes or so of cooking. The thickness of the soup is adjusted by simmering for longer or by adding more liquid. Soup joumou is usually served with Haitian bread or dinner rolls.