Egusi Soup With vegetables. This soup was called “an Award winning soup” by one of hubby’s friends after clearing his plate.
How to cook delicious egusi soup with bitter leaf
INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups ground egusi (Melon)
- 2 handfuls washed bitter leaf
- 1 kg beef
- 2 medium sized Smoked fish
- 2 cups cut pieces of cow skin( kpomo)
- A tablespoonful palm oil
- 1 teaspoon ground fresh pepper
- One small onion to steam the beef
- salt to taste
- 1 cup roughly ground crayfish
- 2 knorr cubes
- water, enough to cover the beef after after boiling with your onion and salt.
COOKING STEPS FOR Egusi Soup With vegetables
- Wash and boil the salted beef in a dry pot, with some chopped onions, 1 seasoning cube and pepper, bring to a quick boil and then allow to simmer.
- Washed the kpomo with salt and water, chop into desired size pieces and add. Leave to cook for about five minutes before removing and keeping in another container (If the kpomo you used is very soft).
- When the beef gets tender, add more to cover the beef in the pot, check for salt and seasoning to taste.
- Once it starts boiling, the ground egusi (melon) is poured in with some crayfish and then covered. (You can pound the egusi with 1/2 cup warm water to make lumps before adding if that’s how you like it. I poured the ground egusi in powder form to the pot here.
- The egusi is allowed to boil for about 5 minutes before stirring, palm oil is added and covered again for about 3 minutes.
- Add the washed and picked smoked fish, remaining seasoning cube and kpomo now. Check for salt and cover again to boil briefly.
- The washed bitter leaf, which at this time is no longer bitter, is then added sparingly with continuous stirring.
- Check again for salt, cover and leave to boil for say 2 minutes or more if you like, before turning off the heat
Egusi soup is best enjoyed with eba. Some people love it with pounded yam, but I prefer my eba here.
Click below to see more soup recipes you might want to try.
SEE MORE EGUSI SOUPS ON THE BLOG:
Egusi soup with bitter leaf with ugu vegetable
I am going to cook this one. I love, love your blog, especially seeing the meals you create and your simple, no-frills approach to cooking. You make it look so easy. Even if I don't comment often, please know that I'm always coming to read what new meals you have to showcase. me. Well done, my sister.
Thank you OS,and please remember to wash the bitter leaf again when you get home from shopping. The market women only wash a little, so, wash and chew a bit to ensure that you have removed all the bitter taste.
TIP: For those who can't find time to squeeze bitter leaf, boiling it removes the bitter taste. Put in a pot with much water and boil until it is no longer bitter before you drain out the bitter water. I prefer to squeeze it though.
Happy New Year OS!
Yummy Yummy … another deli.. meal
How about frying the egusi with palm oil??? i cant really make egusi soup *cover face*
I fry my egusi with palm oil sometimes to vary the taste. Frying helps separate the water from the egusi in a way that makes the soup have tiny egusi lumps, which is good.
FRYING TIP:I Add water to the ground egusi and mix into a smooth free flowing paste before pouring into hot palm oil and stirring until I begin to see like tiny lumps separating from the oil.
This is then added to the boiling pot of soup.
Happy New Year B C Makeovers!
I always tend to make mine by frying with palm oil – thanks for the frying tip you just gave. I have always wondered whether this method would make the egusi soup have that raw taste that says it hasn't been well cooked? Not sure hence I remain with frying mine. I tend to use spinach as well.
Many thanks for your cooking posts and happy new 2013 to you.
Thanks, learnt alot from your blog, God bless.. Happy new year…
Thanks for mentioning spinach, I will try it too. Ugu or afang (okazi) vegetable with egusi is great too. At what time do you add the spinach? In the middle or as a last ingredient?
Happy New Year HH.
Giving the egusi enough time to boil and cook well takes away that raw taste.
Roasting it in a dry pot with low heat while stirring until some begin to pop like pop corn before grinding, is another way of destroying that raw taste in egusi.
lol @ award winning soup. Orah soup used to be my favorite back in Nigeria but nowadays, partly due to lack of Orah cooking resources, I seem to be leaning more and more towards Eguisi.
So far it has been a delicious and expensive lean… expensive in that that fufu weight is not a joke
Immediately I saw the pic, I knew it was bitterleaf egusi, my mum's favorite. I cook it sometimes too, with this same method of boiling the egusi in the meat stock first. Kudos madam.
*salivating* this is so not fair Eya!
Only you chop this ehn? *stillsalivating*…..ok ooo! issorit! 😀
Happy year o!
I am going to try this method of cooking egusi,it looks so inviting. I always fry mine and i love the bitter taste of the bitter leaf so i don't boil after squeezing 'cos it takes me to another level entirely…….lol
I love your blog,kudos.
My dear sis, the fufu weight is not a joke o. I try as much as possible to make the fufu very small. I will learn to cook your favorite so that when next you visit Naija, it will be waiting for you.
Thanks Myne, recognizing meals is one quality of a good cook. Frying the egusi is a method I don't do often.
Thanks SM, truth is, I only ate a little o.
You love the bitter taste? That's interesting and healthy too. I don't fry always but when I do, I get a different great taste.
Thank you.
I add the spinach at the very end to the egusi and leave it to simmer for only a few minutes.
Sometimes I mould the grounded egusi with onions and fry as small size balls in hot palm oil before gradually adding meat stock and other ingridients, I givse me more chewy lumps which I enjoy
Thanks for sharing.
U can also pound or mix egusi wit hand(wit maggi, salt, onions) til d oil comes out, then u drop into meat stock in balls and cook till egusi is well cooked inside. It comes out in taste bursting chewy balls.
Ama calabar babe original
This makes sense Calabar babe original. Thanks for sharing o.
Wow ur blog is awesome .omo
Good morning aunty Eya, please I noticed you didn't use tomatoes in your egusi, I have seen a recepie with tomatoes in the past. I think I will try your method too. Looks inviting. Jite
Thanks Jite, you know there are always many methods of cooking any dish.
I add tomatoes, only, when I want to serve the soup with boiled rice.
Thanks Omo, please keep coming back.
Egusi is my best soup but it also makes me to suffer "APA AFO".
You know what that mean?
Gdevening aunty Eya,
My husband complained he was tired of our soups(yorubas) nd wanted soups frm oda tribes,had to go on d net nd I stumbled on ur blog abt 2wks ago nd I'm glad I did. I got to prepare dz egusi soup and ur edikakan nd my husband was rily happy,his comment-dz soup makes sense mehn. I was elated. I'm now soooo hooked to dz blog and go evrywhere wit my lil recipe book. I'm making afang and draw dz wkend,so help me God and aunty Eya. Thanks a bunch,God bless u plenty
Don't worry, God will help you. The soups will turn out great. Thank you for sharing!!!
Eventhough im an asian, but i like egusi so much… My husband is an african ^_^ will cook your method today as i always failed everytime i cook this dish. Oh sadd… Thanks…
Oh my Goodness — just what I needed – my honey is coming to the States from Nigeria and he just lit up on the internet (we were skyping) when I told him about this….wow !!! Can't wait to try it !!!
Nichole – in Florida