Grade: Caribbean Vegetable Soup

• Flavor
• Texture
• Cooking ease
• Price
• Estimated healthiness
• Creativity of the recipe
• Completeness 

Out of 70 points.

Flavor: 10/10. My job of replacing ingredients because I couldn't find that one thing turned out very well, and I hope the thing I replaced tastes like what I used (does that make sense? :P ). So much was going on. It's fruity, fun, playful, and would go well at a summertime party with fruity-alcomaholic drinks and some Caribbean music. It definitely merits the wearing of bathing suits while eating.

Texture: 10/10. What is not right about this thing? I love full, hearty soups. I learned some time back that hearty doesn't necessarily mean meaty, or heavy, or thick; it can be busy, or full. The Caribbean soup seems to take everything awesome and stick them together. It goes against what we seem to think of Caribbean as, but I'm thinking it makes sense. They probably sleep on banana trees (I jest; that wouldn't make any sense, but we have to import them from far away which isn't fair. Our deal locally is berries, pears and apples, really; we don't get neat fruits like bananas.)

Cooking ease: 8/10. DEAR GOD I CHOPPED EVERYTHING. I chopped ahead of time, thinking I'd need to, and although I was correct I didn't have enough bowls to put everything in. I had bowls everywhere, and I still had more to chop. And when I dumped in the first wave of food, I had to continue chopping. By the time I had everything in and cleaned up, it was close to done. And, my dears, it smelled AMAZING. Fruit soup = very large win. I think this and Apple soup may be my two favorites. Just.. get used to chopping.

Price: 9/10. Melons and plantains and so on and so forth do add up and I get that. Some of these you may have already (e.g. bananas, carrots and squash; everyone has squash when it's in season). Some may not, but that's okay. It's very filling and it's not a sinful food; you can have seconds and be okay with it.

Estimated healthiness: 9.5/10. If you're diabetic, this isn't for you due to the glycemic index of the fruits, plus the potassium in things like the bananas/plantains that are included in the recipe. But for the average person, I highly recommend eating more fruits and veggies -- like any future RD should -- but that doesn't mean in the conventional sense. You can team this up with other things like bread, meats and cheeses if you're creative, and save it for later for when you're too lazy to cook up some smoothies or head out to the store for more fresh fruit. It freezes well but takes freaking forever to microwave. The butternut squash soup, 5 ladel-fulls, took about 5 minutes; this one, same amount, could take 8-10, so keep in mind that warming it back up may be a challenge but it's worth it.

Creativity: 10/10. I don't know whether people in the Caribbean would agree -- if this is really something they'd eat in the first place -- but over here it's freaking brilliant. I would have never put those things together, or replaced that one thing with the melon and the squash like Magz the Food Scientist suggested, but it came out extremely well. It's colorful, bright, happy, and busy, and it's filling. It's just plain the best soup ever.

Completeness: 10/10. What the heck else could you PUT in this thing? It's not a gumbo. You don't necessarily need things like okra or sausage, but you could, I guess. The okra would be bland when eaten with the rest of the very sweet fruits and things, but the sausage would hold it's own. However, the fattiness from the animal meat would make the texture change, and I can't predict how that'd work out. I'm not sure I'd be okay with making this soup greasy. It works so well all on it's own. The only thing I could say, really, is to add some leafy greens, perhaps. But that's pushing it, and that's all I can really think of.

Grade: 66.5/70 = a strong A. And I agree, whole-heartedly. I recommend getting what you can at local markets to enhance the flavor, but I know some of that (e.g. bananas) won't be available here in the States like that. Do remember it's supposed to be chunky, with bite-sized things floating around. There's not enough room for floating juices; there should be enough so you can freeze it and not ruin the solids.

As always, enjoy cooking!