Egusi Soup Recipe: How to Make Nigerian Egusi Soup

This egusi soup recipe makes the version most Nigerian homes actually cook: ground melon seeds fried in palm oil until they set into soft lumps, then loosened with stock and finished with greens. It is rich, it is filling, and it is the soup people mean when they say they miss home food.

Serves 4 to 6. About 1 hour, most of it unattended.

What egusi actually is

Egusi is the seed of a melon grown across West Africa. The seeds are dried, shelled and ground, and it is the ground seed that gives the soup its body. Nothing else thickens it. That is worth knowing, because if the egusi is old or badly ground the soup will never come together properly no matter what else you do.

There are two schools. In the caking method the egusi goes into hot oil and is left alone until it sets into curds. In the stirred method it is mixed into stock from the start and stays smooth. This recipe uses the caking method, which is the one most people picture.

Ingredients

• 2 cups ground egusi (melon seeds)
• 1 lb beef or goat meat, cut into pieces
• 1/2 lb assorted meat or tripe, optional
• 1/4 cup Jeb Foods ground crayfish
• 1/2 cup palm oil
• 1 large onion
• 2 to 3 scotch bonnet peppers
• 2 cups chopped spinach, ugu or washed bitter leaf
• 2 stock cubes
• Salt to taste
• About 3 cups water or stock

Method

1. Season the meat with half the onion chopped, one stock cube and salt. Add water to just cover and boil until tender, about 30 minutes for beef and longer for goat. Keep every drop of that stock.
2. Blend the remaining onion with the scotch bonnet peppers.
3. Warm the palm oil in a wide pot over medium heat. Do not let it smoke. Add the blended onion and pepper and fry for about 5 minutes.
4. Mix the ground egusi with a little stock to a thick paste. Drop it into the pot in small lumps.
5. Leave it alone for about 10 minutes. This is the part people get wrong. If you stir it now it will never cake.
6. Add the reserved stock a little at a time and simmer for 15 minutes.
7. Stir in the ground crayfish, the cooked meat and the second stock cube. Simmer another 10 minutes.
8. Add the greens, stir once, cook 5 minutes more. Taste and adjust the salt.

Tips

• Buy your egusi ground rather than grinding whole seeds in a blender. Blenders heat the seed and turn it oily.
• Warm palm oil, never smoking. Smoked palm oil tastes burnt and no amount of seasoning hides it.
• Taste the stock before the egusi goes in. Once the soup thickens it is much harder to season evenly.
• If you are using bitter leaf, wash it until the water runs clear or the soup will be genuinely bitter.

Variations

• Egusi with ugu is the most common in the south east.
• Egusi with bitter leaf is the classic pairing if you like the edge it gives.
• Egusi ijebu is looser and smoother, made with the stirred method rather than caking.
• Stockfish, dried fish and ponmo are all common additions. Add them with the meat.

Questions people ask

What is egusi made from?

Ground melon seeds. Not groundnut, not pumpkin as sold in the west, but a West African melon grown for its seed rather than its flesh.

Can I use frozen spinach?

Yes. Thaw it and squeeze out the water first, otherwise it thins the soup.

Why did my egusi not cake?

Almost always because it was stirred too early, or the oil was not hot enough when the paste went in.

How long does it keep?

Three to four days in the fridge, or up to three months frozen. It reheats better than most soups.

To serve

Serve hot with pounded yam, eba, semolina or fufu.

Contains shellfish from the crayfish.