- 1 hour
- Prep 20 minutes
- Cook 40 minutes
- Serves 4
Our own recipe. The photograph is AI-generated.
Ingredients
- 150g ground egusi (melon seeds, sold ground in African shops and the world foods aisle)
- 2 red bell peppers (about 300g), called tatashe in Nigeria
- 1 scotch bonnet chilli (ata rodo), stalk off
- 2 medium onions: 1 for blending, 1 finely chopped
- 4 tablespoons red palm oil (about 60ml)
- 1 tablespoon iru (fermented locust beans), rinsed (optional)
- 250g chestnut mushrooms, quartered
- 500ml vegetable stock (1 stock cube in 500ml hot water)
- 300g spinach, washed and roughly chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt, then more to taste
- To serve: 400g pounded yam flour (sold as poundo yam)
Let's cook
- Blend the base. Put the red peppers, scotch bonnet and 1 roughly chopped onion in a blender with 100ml water and blend until smooth. For a milder soup, scrape the seeds out of the scotch bonnet first.
- Mix the egusi with 6 tablespoons of water in a bowl to make a thick paste. This helps it cook into soft curds, a little like scrambled egg, instead of a gritty sauce.
- Heat the palm oil in a large pan on a medium heat. Add the chopped onion and the iru if using, and fry for 3 minutes until soft and fragrant.
- Add the mushrooms and fry for 5 minutes until golden and their juice has cooked away.
- Pour in the blended pepper base. Boil it gently, uncovered, for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring now and then, until it thickens and the oil starts to rise to the top.
- Drop the egusi paste over the sauce in small lumps. Do not stir. Put the lid on and cook on a low heat for 8 minutes so the lumps set.
- Make the stock with the cube and 500ml hot water. Pour it in, stir gently to break the egusi into curds, add the salt and simmer for 10 minutes until thick. Add a splash of water if it gets too thick to stir.
- Stir in the spinach and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until just wilted and still bright green. Taste and add more salt if needed.
- Make the pounded yam. Bring 800ml water to the boil, turn the heat down and sprinkle in the yam flour, stirring hard with a wooden spoon. Keep stirring and pressing for 4 to 5 minutes until smooth and stretchy, adding a little hot water if it is stiff. Follow the packet if its amounts differ. Shape into 4 balls with a wet spoon.
- Serve the soup in bowls with the pounded yam on a separate plate. To eat, pinch off a little yam, press a dip into it with your thumb and scoop up the soup.
Tips
- Good egusi soup sets in soft curds. Leaving the paste alone for the first few minutes is the secret.
- Red palm oil gives the soup its colour and taste. It is sold in African shops and many large supermarkets.
- The soup keeps in the fridge for 3 days and freezes well. Reheat it until steaming hot.
Swaps
- No palm oil: use vegetable oil with half a teaspoon of smoked paprika for colour.
- With meat: brown 500g diced beef first and simmer it in the stock until tender before adding the egusi.
- Rice instead of pounded yam: serve with 300g boiled long-grain rice.
Tags
In Autumn comfort, Plant powered.
None of the 14 allergens is in this recipe as written. Egusi is a seed, not a nut. Stock cubes can contain celery, so check the packet.
Check every packet for allergens.