Nigerian pepper soup is a thin, hot, aromatic broth with nothing thickening it. No flour, no egusi, no palm oil. The body comes from the stock and the character comes from the spice blend and the scotch bonnet. It is eaten year round, and it is what people ask for when they are cold or under the weather.
Serves 4. About 45 minutes.
What makes pepper soup different
Most Nigerian soups are thick and eaten with a swallow. Pepper soup is not. It is a broth, drunk from a bowl, and the point is the aroma as much as the heat.
The spice blend is what makes it. It is built on West African seeds and barks including uda, ehuru and uziza, ground together. You can buy it ready blended, which is what most people do.
Ingredients
- 2 lb goat meat, catfish or chicken
- 2 tbsp pepper soup spice blend
- 2 tbsp Jeb Foods ground crayfish
- 1 to 2 scotch bonnet peppers
- 1 onion
- 2 stock cubes
- A handful of scent leaf, or basil if you cannot get it
- Salt to taste
- 6 cups water
Method
- Wash the meat well. Put it in a pot with half the onion chopped, one stock cube and a little salt.
- Add water to just cover and boil until almost tender. Goat takes an hour or more, chicken about 25 minutes, catfish barely 10.
- Blend the remaining onion with the scotch bonnet and add it to the pot.
- Stir in the pepper soup spice, the ground crayfish and the second stock cube.
- Add the rest of the water and simmer 15 to 20 minutes so the spices open up.
- Taste and adjust salt and heat.
- Tear the scent leaf over the pot, turn off the heat, and leave it 2 minutes before serving.
Tips
- Add catfish last and stop stirring once it is in, or it falls apart.
- The soup should be thin. If it looks like a stew you have used too little water.
- Scent leaf goes in off the heat. Boiling it kills the aroma you are cooking for.
- Ground crayfish is what stops it tasting flat. Do not skip it.
Variations
- Goat meat pepper soup: the standard at bars and gatherings.
- Catfish pepper soup: lighter, faster, the most popular fish version.
- Chicken pepper soup: the everyday one.
- Assorted meat: shaki, ponmo and offal, cooked long.
Choosing your protein
Pepper soup is really a method rather than a single dish, and what you put in it changes everything about the timing. Goat is the celebration version and needs the longest cook. Catfish is the one most people order at a bar and is done in minutes. Chicken sits in the middle and is the easiest on a weeknight.
Whatever you use, cook it in the pot rather than adding it cooked. The broth needs what comes out of the meat, and that is the difference between pepper soup and hot water with spice in it.
- Goat: 1 hour or more. Bone in, always.
- Catfish: 10 minutes at most. Add last, then stop stirring.
- Chicken: about 25 minutes. Thighs beat breast.
- Assorted meat: shaki and ponmo need long, slow cooking before anything else joins them.
Questions people ask
What is pepper soup spice made of?
A ground blend of West African seeds and barks, commonly uda, ehuru and uziza. Blends differ between makers and regions.
Can I use stock instead of water?
Yes, and it is better. Just watch the salt, since stock and stock cubes together can go too far.
Why is my pepper soup bland?
Usually not enough spice blend, or it was added too late to open up. Give it a full 15 minutes of simmering.
Can I freeze it?
Yes, though catfish does not survive freezing well. Goat and chicken are fine for up to three months.
Is pepper soup supposed to be this hot?
It is a hot dish by design, but you control it. The scotch bonnet brings the heat and the spice blend brings the aroma. Use one pepper rather than two the first time and add more at the table.
To serve
Serve very hot in bowls, on its own or with a small portion of white rice, yam or agidi.
Contains shellfish from the crayfish.