Caribbean Fish Soup - cooking recipe

Ingredients

2 whole fish, scaled and cleaned, or more to taste
1 lemon, juiced
8 cups water
4 green bananas, chopped
1 pound pumpkin, cut into 1-inch pieces, or more to taste
2 potatoes, chopped
2 ears corn, cut into 1-inch pieces
4 ounces carrots, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 cup chopped okra
4 scallions, chopped
1 hot chile pepper
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves stripped

Preparation

Rinse fish with lemon juice; drain.
Bring water to a boil in a large bowl. Add fish; simmer until soft, about 30 minutes. Strain fish, reserving broth. Let fish cool. Remove bones, trying to keep large pieces of fish intact.
Bring broth to a boil. Add green bananas, pumpkin, potatoes, corn, carrots, okra, scallions, chile pepper, garlic, salt, pepper, and thyme. Bring back to a boil. Reduce heat to low; simmer until potatoes are almost tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in fish. Simmer until flavors combine, about 5 minutes more.
Remove soup from heat and let stand before serving, about 30 minutes. Discard chile pepper.