Nigerian – Egusi Soup with bitterleaf

• 🧑‍🍳 Hard
• ⏱ Prep: 10mins
• 🥘 Cook: 30mins
• 🍴 Serves 8

Egusi soup is a classic Nigerian dish. It is common amongst the southern and south western part of the country. It’s also known as agushie in Ghana. It’s normally eaten at lunch or dinner. Get this recipe right and your guests would be left smacking their lips and licking their fingers. I love eating this on a cold winter’s day with eba (cassava paste). This version contains meat which normally adds extra flavour to the soup and I’ve use bitterleaf in this recipe. Other greens to use as an alternative include spinach and or kale.

Egusi Soup with Bitterleaf Ingredients

Main Ingredients

• ½ litre Palm oil
• 1kg egusi, ground melon seeds
• 1 ½ L water

Seasonings

• 2 tsp salt
• 3 knorr cubes
• 3 tbsp of crayfish, ground
• 1 tbsp red chilli pepper, ground
• 2 tbsp of iru (locust beans), washed
• 4 tbsp of dried and smoked prawns, washed

Greens

• 500g bitterleaf

Meat

• 5kg of goat meat, cooked
• 2kg of cow’s foot, cooked
• 2kg of tripe, cooked

Egusi Soup with Bitterleaf Directions

1. Add the palm oil in a deep pot and set under medium heat. When the palm oil changes colour from red to a darker colour and becomes more runny like vegetable oil (bleaching process), add the iru and fry for 3 mins.
2. After 3 mins of frying the iru, add the blended melon seeds, 1 1/2 l of water, cooked prawns, smoked prawns, dried cod fish, ground chilli pepper, crayfish and cook all for 5 mins while stirring the stew.
3. Now, add your cooked meats to the deep pot and cook under medium heat for 8 mins.
4. Add your bitterleaf to the deep pot, mix together and cook for up to 15 mins. Once done, take the pot off heat and set aside to cool for 5 mins before serving.

Serving: My usual plate normally contains a portion of egusi soup and eba ©

💡To elevate the taste of the egusi soup, toast the melon seed in a hot dry pan continually turning to prevent burning. If the seed has been blended, you can still toast the ground powder to achieve a smoky taste.

⏱ Prepare as much as you can before cooking so that the actual soup making event is more of a pick, add and mix activity rather than trying to make everything from scratch on the same day.