Friday, March 29, 2024

Warm Up With This Spicy Caribbean Cannabis Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin is more than a vaguely orange colored goop for flavoring cakes, pies, and lattes. It’s a staple food in dozens of countries, as its size, ease of cultivation, nutrient content, and bonus edible seeds lead it to be almost ubiquitous. Mine comes in the green kabocha variety, readily purchased at the Asian market.

Pumpkin is also very big in the Caribbean, and this is probably for a lot of the same reasons. Pumpkin soup is a beloved breakfast soup in Jamaica, and it’s well seasoned with scallion, chilis, thyme, and allspice, making for a uniquely flavored brew that’s energizing, got the fat your brain needs in the morning, and the potent seasoning that Jamaicans are beloved for serving up. This version is infused with cannabis for a dram of the good stuff.

Photos by Maria Penaloza

Spicy​ ​Caribbean​ ​Cannabis​ ​Pumpkin​ ​Soup

Adapted from the NY Times
Serves 4-6, 10-7 mg THC per bowl estimated

  • 4 scallions
  • 2 shallot
  • 5 cloves garlic
  • ½ kabocha pumpkin
  • 1 large carrot
  • 4 ribs celery
  • ½ c coconut milk
  • 1 Tbs olive oil
  • 1 Tbs cannabis infused coconut oil*
  • ¼ tsp allspice
  • 1 vegetarian Cubito (buillon cube)
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 sprigs thyme
  • 2 chilis
  • 6 c vegetable broth
  • Salt to taste
  • Half a lemon

Wash all of the vegetables well and set to dry. Peel and core the pumpkin, slicing into ½ inch chunks or slices. Peel the garlic, shallots, and carrot. Chop and toss into a deep heavy bottomed pot with some olive oil.

Chop up the celery and chilies and cook until all of the veggies are translucent. Add the cannabis oil, spices, cubito, chilis, and the white part of the scallions, reserving the green parts for garnish.

Photos by Maria Penaloza

Pour over the vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Now add the pumpkin to the boiling soup and cook until the pumpkin is tender, 5-10 minutes. Lower the heat, then add the coconut milk and a squeeze of lemon. Cook for a few more minutes. Serve hot sprinkled with the green tops of the scallions.

Photos by Maria Penaloza

*Cannabis​ ​Coconut​ ​Oil

Decarboxylate 3.5g of finely ground cannabis at 225 degrees for 20 minutes in a tightly sealed, oven safe container. Put cannabis in lidded mason jar or vacuum sealed bag with cannabis and ½ cup coconut oil. Heat in water bath just under boiling for at least 1 hour. Strain and chill to use in recipes.

This tasty soup goes great with sticky rice, which is an excellent way to use up the other half of the can of coconut milk. It’s filling, packed with carotenoid rich orange colored foods that help with eyesight and keeping your skin safe from the sun. This soup’s got the right amount of spice to satisfyingly burn without being too hot, so you’ll want to eat a huge bowl without looking back. Enjoy the flavors of fall without making everything about sweets, so you can save your sweet tooth for Halloween.

Photos: Maria Penaloza

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