Egusi soup or egusi soup is a Nigerian culinary specialty that all Africans agree on because of its taste. It is made from shelled pumpkin seeds, green leaves and several meats and fish. In Nigeria, it is generally accompanied by pounded yam or pounded yam or couscous gari and is also eaten with rice or other complements. It is a soup that requires enough time to be cooked and successfully prepared according to the rules of the art. In this article, I show you how to make the real Nigerian egusi soup. So let's go!
Total time
Preparation: 30 min Cooking: 3-4h Resting:-
INGREDIENTS
- 2 kg of Meat (beef, goat, cow's trotter, and/or other meat of your choice)
- ½ kg of Shaki
- ½ kg of Kpomo
- 1 1/2 cups of shelled pumpkin seeds
- 2 beef bouillon cubes
- 3 red peppers
- 2 medium onions
- 1 cup Ugu/spinach leaves
- Smoked fish
- A cup of crayfish powder
- 1 cup broth
- 1 cup palm oil
- 2-3 Stockfish
- Salt
- Peppers
- 2 Scotch peppers
PREPARATION
1
The first step to make Nigerian egusi soup is to cook the meats. Clean and boil the beef, goat or other meat, the shaki and the kpomo together in a saucepan for 20 minutes, seasoning with salt, stock cube, a blended or grated onion and 1 Scottish pepper. The shaki is in fact nothing other than the towel or beef tripe and the kpomo is the beef skin.
2
Cook for the first 20 minutes without adding water and then add a little water to finish cooking. Be careful not to add too much water while cooking your meats. Ideally, add a little water gradually until the end of cooking. The goal here is that the broth that comes out is well concentrated and has more flavor. Among the meats, others could cook before the others, simply remove those that are cooked and continue cooking the others until all the meats are well softened. When they are cooked, drain, set aside as well as the broth.
3
Now that the meats are cooked, for more flavor and taste, you can fry them in oil or grill them in the oven at 160 degrees for about 20 min. But you can also make your soup without grilling or frying the meats, it will still be just as good.
4
Then boil the smoked fish and stockfish for a few minutes and set aside.
5
Blend 2 onions, the chillies and the red peppers. The mixture does not need to be too smooth, it should be very finely chopped because when it is too smooth it can make the sauce a little watery.
6
Now take care of the pumpkin seeds or egusi. Blend in a dry blender until well ground. Then pour into a bowl and add some water and some crayfish powder and mix properly until you get a smooth paste and set aside.
7
Next prepare your ugu leaves. These are actually pumpkin leaves, a variety of leaves grown mainly in Nigeria and other African countries. You can use other green leaves including spinach. So, pick your leaves from the stems and add boiling water. Let sit for 2 min and drain. Then chop coarsely or finely, it all depends on you and set aside.
8
This is the time to cook the soup itself. Place your pan on the fire and pour in the palm oil. Let it heat up and add a chopped onion, cook for 2 minutes, add crayfish powder and immediately add the red mixture of chillies, red peppers and onions. Add the salt and cubes and mix well, cover and cook for about 20 to 25 minutes while stirring every 5 minutes. Cook uncovered so that the water can evaporate completely and quickly
9
Then add the meats, mix and cook for about 5-10 minutes while stirring constantly.
10
Add the smoked fish and dried fish, mix and simmer for 2 min.
11
Then add 1 cup of meat broth and simmer for 2 min.
12
Add the egusi paste. Make small balls before introducing into the preparation, stir everything gently without breaking them, cover and cook for 15 minutes.
13
Now stir by crushing the egusi balls, check the seasoning and add the green leaves and stir well. Add the leaves gradually until you get the texture you like. If you want your soup very green, put more leaves and if not, simply put less leaves. Let it simmer for 3 min and bring to a boil. Your Nigerian egusi soup is finally ready. Serve with rice, pounded yam, corn couscous or tapioca couscous 
Note : Be careful to cook the egusi paste well. If it is not cooked well, you risk indigestion after eating it.
