What is the national dish of Haiti?

Soup joumou, a thick pumpkin-based soup with beef, pasta, and root vegetables, is the dish most closely tied to Haitian identity. It is eaten every January 1 to mark independence, because pumpkin soup had been forbidden to enslaved people under French colonial rule. UNESCO inscribed the tradition on its intangible cultural heritage list in 2021.

What is epis and why does every recipe start with it?

Epis is the green seasoning base of Haitian cooking: parsley, scallion, garlic, thyme, bell pepper, onion, and often Scotch bonnet, blended with citrus juice and oil. Most cooks keep a jar in the fridge and start nearly every savoury dish with a spoonful, which is why Haitian food tastes consistent from house to house.

What is griot made of?

Griot is pork shoulder marinated in epis and sour orange or lime, simmered until tender, then fried until the edges crisp. It is served with pikliz — a fiery pickled cabbage, carrot, and Scotch bonnet relish — and usually diri kole or fried plantain.

What gives diri ak djon djon its black colour?

Djon djon are dried black mushrooms that grow in northern Haiti. They are steeped in hot water, and the dark steeping liquid is used to cook the rice, colouring it black and giving it an earthy flavour. The mushrooms themselves are usually strained out or added back whole.

Where can I buy Haitian ingredients in the diaspora?

Caribbean and West African grocers stock most of what you need: djon djon, Maggi cubes, sour orange, Scotch bonnet, and cassava. In large diaspora cities, Haitian-owned markets carry the rest. Frozen sour orange juice and jarred epis are reliable substitutes when fresh is unavailable.

Culture guide

Haitian Recipes: The Dishes That Keep Us Haitian

A guide to traditional Haitian recipes — soup joumou, griot, diri ak djon djon, legim, and epis — with the cultural context behind each dish.

Last updated August 19, 2026

Haitian cooking is built on a small set of foundations — a green seasoning base, sour citrus, Scotch bonnet, and long, patient simmering. Learn those and the dishes follow. This guide walks through the ones that matter most, what goes into them, and why they hold the place they do.

Start with epis

Epis is the blended green seasoning that opens almost every savoury Haitian dish. Parsley, scallion, garlic, thyme, bell pepper, onion, and Scotch bonnet, blended with sour orange or lime juice and a little oil. Make a jar, keep it in the fridge for a couple of weeks, and use a spoonful wherever a recipe below calls for seasoning.

The second foundation is the citrus wash: meat is rubbed and rinsed with sour orange, lime, or vinegar before it is seasoned. Skipping that step is the most common reason home cooking abroad tastes different from home cooking in Haiti.

The core dishes

Dish	What it is	When it's eaten
Soup joumou	Pumpkin soup with beef, pasta, and root vegetables	January 1, Independence Day
Griot	Marinated pork, simmered then fried crisp	Parties, Sunday meals, holidays
Diri ak djon djon	Black rice cooked in dried djon djon mushroom liquid	Celebrations and special occasions
Diri kole ak pwa	Rice and red beans cooked together in coconut	Everyday staple
Legim	Slow-mashed vegetable stew with beef or crab	Sunday family meals
Tasso kabrit	Fried marinated goat	Kanaval, gatherings, street food
Pikliz	Pickled cabbage, carrot, and Scotch bonnet relish	Alongside anything fried
Akra & marinad	Malanga fritters and savoury dough fritters	Fritay, snacks, street food
Pen patat	Sweet potato pudding with coconut milk and spice	Dessert, holidays

Soup joumou

Beef seasoned with epis and simmered until tender, then joumou (a West Indian pumpkin or calabaza) cooked down until it dissolves into the broth, with malanga, potato, cabbage, turnip, and short pasta added towards the end. It should be thick enough to coat a spoon. The dish carries the weight of January 1, 1804: pumpkin soup was a colonist's food, forbidden to the enslaved, and eating it on Independence Day reverses that.

Griot and pikliz

Pork shoulder is washed in sour orange, marinated in epis, simmered in its own liquid until tender, then fried until the outside crackles. Pikliz is the counterweight — raw cabbage, carrot, onion, and Scotch bonnet packed into vinegar and left to sharpen for at least a few days. One is rich, the other cuts straight through it.

Diri ak djon djon

Dried djon djon mushrooms from northern Haiti are steeped in hot water; the near-black liquid is strained and used as the cooking water for the rice, often with lima beans and shrimp. The colour is the point, but so is the deep, earthy flavour that no other rice dish gets close to.

Legim

Eggplant, chayote, cabbage, spinach, and carrot cooked with beef or crab until everything breaks down into a dense, mashed stew. It takes hours and is almost always a Sunday dish, served over white rice with a bean sauce alongside.

Recipes in Haitian households are measured by hand and by taste, not by cup. Treat any written quantity as a starting point and adjust to the way it tasted in your own family's kitchen.

Cooking Haitian food in the diaspora

Caribbean, West African, and Latin grocers carry most staples: djon djon, sour orange, Scotch bonnet, malanga, cassava, and Maggi cubes.
Frozen sour orange juice and jarred epis are honest substitutes when fresh isn't available.
Calabaza or kabocha squash stands in well for joumou; butternut is sweeter and thinner.
Make pikliz a week ahead — it only improves, and it turns simple fried food into a proper plate.
Cook with someone older in the family on video call. Most of these recipes were never written down.

Frequently asked questions

What is the national dish of Haiti?: Soup joumou, a thick pumpkin-based soup with beef, pasta, and root vegetables, is the dish most closely tied to Haitian identity. It is eaten every January 1 to mark independence, because pumpkin soup had been forbidden to enslaved people under French colonial rule. UNESCO inscribed the tradition on its intangible cultural heritage list in 2021.
What is epis and why does every recipe start with it?: Epis is the green seasoning base of Haitian cooking: parsley, scallion, garlic, thyme, bell pepper, onion, and often Scotch bonnet, blended with citrus juice and oil. Most cooks keep a jar in the fridge and start nearly every savoury dish with a spoonful, which is why Haitian food tastes consistent from house to house.
What is griot made of?: Griot is pork shoulder marinated in epis and sour orange or lime, simmered until tender, then fried until the edges crisp. It is served with pikliz — a fiery pickled cabbage, carrot, and Scotch bonnet relish — and usually diri kole or fried plantain.
What gives diri ak djon djon its black colour?: Djon djon are dried black mushrooms that grow in northern Haiti. They are steeped in hot water, and the dark steeping liquid is used to cook the rice, colouring it black and giving it an earthy flavour. The mushrooms themselves are usually strained out or added back whole.
Where can I buy Haitian ingredients in the diaspora?: Caribbean and West African grocers stock most of what you need: djon djon, Maggi cubes, sour orange, Scotch bonnet, and cassava. In large diaspora cities, Haitian-owned markets carry the rest. Frozen sour orange juice and jarred epis are reliable substitutes when fresh is unavailable.