Saturday is soup day!

One of the differences between how I was raised and how my husband was raised was the association with a certain type of food on a certain day of the week.  I've posted in the past that I believe my mom cooked whatever, whenever we needed it, and my cooking style somehow follows that pattern.  I don't buy groceries based on a certain menu that I want for the week, but instead, buy a bunch of fresh veggies and meats and then cook whatever I'm sort of in the mood for each day.  My husband does NOT do things this way and was accustomed to planning out meals and having certain meals on certain days.  One of those certain days is Saturday and to be more specific, SOUP on a Saturday!

I make a GREAT corn soup recipe directly out of my Trinidadian Naparima Girl's High School cook book (I've posted info about this cook book before!!!), but it is not like those corn soups you get on the side of the road after an AMAZING soca/reggae party.  I've always wanted to learn to make it that way, but have never found a recipe that quite matches the taste of those ones on the street!  The other day on Facebook, friends of our started posting a corn soup recipe from Tasty and we both decided we wanted to try it!  After watching the video, my husband decided that he already knew how to make it and then did his own thing without following that exact recipe.  His soup turned out to be REALLY, REALLY good, but still not the corn soup we were looking for.  It turned out to be more of a split pea soup, but again, it was incredibly tasty and filling and so I've decided to post his recipe here today!

Here is the recipe we saw on Facebook, if you're interested in trying it:

http://www.foodienationtt.com/carnivalcornsoup

But here is a loose recipe to follow if you'd like to replicate what my husband made today:

First he sauteed some onion and garlic in vegetable oil for a few minutes.  He then added dried split peas and continued to sautee them together for another 5 minutes.  He then added a few pieces of pieces of pumpkin (butternut squash), added a little bit of water, and brought it to a boil so that the peas and pumpkin became tender.  He added some chopped chives, salt, and pepper.  He then took it off the stove and put it in the blender for a few seconds until pureed.  He put the puree back over the stove in the pot and added about a cup of coconut milk (he made his own coconut milk for this recipe, but you can use the kind in the tin).  He also added pieces of salt fish that he had already boiled the salt out of and added corn kernels that he had cut directly off the cob.  He then added a sprig of thyme and some more chives, chopped carrots, the chunks of corn on the cob, and a cup of chicken broth.  He let it simmer for another 10 minutes.  In that time he made the dumpling and just dropped the pieces right into the soup.  He let it simmer on low for another 5-10 minutes.

Here's how the soup turned out today:

Mmmmmmmmmm!

The soup on low heat after mostly cooking and adding freshly made dumpling

My husband is a good dumpling maker! PS - this kind of dumpling is really just flour, water, and salt....this is NOT an Asian dumpling!