Homemade fish broth makes this healthy soup very tasty. I always loved this dish while growing up in the Caribbean. To my surprise, it turned out to be a good warm-up drink, too. Long story short, as I waited for a bus on a freezing and windy winter evening in NYC, I noticed a West Indian restaurant across the street. I ran in to get a cup of coffee or tea — the last thing on my mind was a bowl of soup. They were about to close, and they only had fish soup. I took a small cup and went back to the bus stop. It warmed me up and reached such a good place inside me that I ran back for more.
Ingredients
- whole fish, scaled and cleaned: 2 pound (to taste)
- lemon: 1 piece (juiced)
- water: 8 cups
- green bananas: 4 piece (chopped)
- pumpkin: 1 pound (cut into 1-inch pieces, to taste)
- potatoes: 2 piece (chopped)
- ears corn: 2 piece (cut into 1-inch pieces)
- ounces carrots: 4 piece (cut into 1/2 inch pieces)
- okra: 0.5 cup (chopped)
- scallions: 4 piece (chopped)
- hot Chili pepper: 1 piece
- garlic: 2 clove (chopped)
- salt: 1 tsp
- ground black pepper: 1 tsp
- sprigs fresh thyme, leaves stripped: 4 piece
Metric Conversion
Stages of cooking
-
Rinse fish with lemon juice; drain.
-
Bring water to a boil in a large pot. Add fish; reduce to a simmer and cook until soft, about 30 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove fish to a plate, reserving broth in the pot. Let fish cool; remove bones, keeping large pieces of flesh intact.
-
Bring broth to a boil. Add green bananas, pumpkin, potatoes, corn, carrots, okra, scallions, chile pepper, garlic, salt, black pepper, and thyme. Return to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until potatoes are almost tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in fish pieces and simmer until flavors combine, about 5 minutes more.
-
Remove soup from heat and let stand before serving, about 30 minutes. Discard chile pepper.
