Egusi soup is unarguably the most popular Nigerian soup, learn to make two of the most popular recipes for (ofe egusi) in Nigeria, you will also learn about all the ingredients used in making them.
Like I stated on the introductory page; Egusi (melon) soup is the most popular of all Nigerian soup. On this page I also included a video on making this delicious recipe and then a list of some other Nigerian soups that are in the same category.
There are two different Egusi Soup recipes that I know about, I will write about the most popular recipe and then the second would follow somewhere down the page.
What you find below is a delicious plate of egusi soup, served with fufu.
Ingredients Includes
Some are required while very few are optional.
Meat of choice 2kg (beef, chicken turkey, goat meat, or assorted meat)
Assorted meat is a combination of different parts of a cow
4 cups of egusi (melon)
Dry fish (about two medium sizes)
1 cup of ground crayfish
1 cup of Ground Osu (optional)
a good quantity of washed bitterlaef (see the video below)
3 cubes of knorr, maggi or other natural sweetener
250ml of palm oil
About 2 liters of water
Salt and pepper to taste.
One medium size Stock fish head (okporoko) (optional)
Ogiri or dawadawa or opkei (local ingredients) optional
Grind the four cups of egusi with a dry blender or hand grinding machine and set aside in a bowl. Add about a cup of water to it and stir to make a very thick paste (this is properly illustrated in the video below)
Be sure that the bitterleaf (onugbu) is properly washed, it is advisable to remove over 95 percent of the bitter taste, this process in known to most Nigerians, it involves washing and squeezing the bitter leaves for several minutes in a very big bowl.
If you bought the already-washed bitterlaef from the market it already, beautiful! it is advisable to boil alone for about ten minutes, this would further remove the bitter taste and serve other purposes.
Parboil the meat of your choice with all the necessary ingredients, it is advisable to parboil meat with some ingredient before adding to the main food, this improves the taste of the meat. Parboil for about ten minutes, then add water and cook till the meat is tender and the stock (water) is about to dry. Use two cubes of knorr, one spoon of kitchen glory beef spice (optional), a teaspoon of salt and half cup of sliced onions.
Soak the dry fish and stock fish in a bowl with hot water and wash thoroughly to remove sand and center bone, then set aside. Tear open the head of stock fish and wash.
Here is the actual making of Nigerian egusi soup with bitterleaf.
Set your cooking pot on fire and add 250ml of palm oil (red oil), allow to heat for a minutes but don’t allow to bleach. Add the egusi paste and keep stirring for the next eight to ten minutes to form seed-like crumbs.
Then transfer the already cooked meat into the pot, stir, add the washed dry fish, stock fish, ground crayfish, 2 cubes of maggi or knorr, 3 cups of water. then cover half way and allow to boil for the next ten to fifteen minutes.
Stir occasionally to avoid burning.
At this point you can add one cup of ground osu (optional), a tablespoon of ground ofor or achi.
Add the already washed bitter leaves, (or ugu [fluted pumpkin]), one spoon of ground dawadawa (local ingredients), taste for salt and pepper.
You may add another cube of knorr. Allow to boils for five to ten minutes and you just made a delicious egusi soup.
Nigerian egusi soup could be served with rice, but most especially eba and fufu.
I also enjoy eating this soup and pounded yam together.
Note: This soup can also be made with fluted pumpkin, the same process should be followed the only different is that bitter leaves should be replaced with fluted pumpkin leaves
Porridge Yam
Yam porridge is one of the easy to make Nigerian foods and I know how to make the two popular porridge yam recipes, one is the everyday porridge you make in your home with fresh tomatoes, pepper, salt maggi, the type you buy in posh restaurants. If you are a member of the Nigerian Kitchen you probably know the one I am talking about, it is very delicious, see image below.
But then I did something else, I decided to experiment further with a tuber of yam and I came up with a delicious pot of yam porridge. Well, there is nothing so special about this recipe but this is the first time I am making anything as delicious as this with yam.
It’s porridge with mashed chicken – A unique Nigerian meal
If you live in Nigeria you probably know a chicken breed that is called ‘orobo’, they are the robust ones. Although it has been proven that those robust chickens are not as tasteful as the thin ones, well, maybe; but I would say that you probably did not apply all my strategy for making tasty fried chickens.
So here I am going to write about these two but similar Porridge Yam Recipes. I think the major difference is the use of chicken in one of them and then the use of vegetables (fluted pumpkin) in the other recipe.
First, let’s make a delicious pot of the yam porridge with mashed chicken. Here is the exact process I followed to get the image you see above.
The Ingredients for 6 persons Includes.
A tuber of yam (peel and slice to serve-able sizes).
Half cup of ground crayfish
Two cube of maggi or knorr.
5cl of palm oil.
Fifteen balls of ripe tomatoes
Two bulb of onions
Half Kg of Chicken.
How To Make Yam Porridge
If you follow this process you will most likely end up with a delicious pot of yam, just like the image you are seeing above.
So what is so special about this recipe? Nothing, you proceed the usual way. Peel off the bark of the yam, slice to serve-able sizes, wash and set aside. Also slice or grind the tomatoes, fresh pepper and a cup of crayfish. I use lots of onions while making most foods, just for its healthy benefits
I just parboiled the chicken for about fifteen minutes, allowed to simmer. Then managed to remove the bones and scattered with a spoon (not really mashing). The orobo chicken breed is very soft and can easily get scattered while you are turning the porridge yam with no extra effort.
We are almost done with making porridge yam.
Pour about ten cl of palm oil into a cooking pot, allow to heat and bleach a little (about two minutes).
Fry the ground tomatoes/pepper for five to ten minutes, add water and transfer the yam. I use palm oil to fry the tomatoes while making porridge yam, add water so that the yam pieces are almost submerged in water (but not completely submarged). Allow to boil then add the chicken, crayfish, a cube of Maggi, salt and allow to cook for the next ten to fifteen minutes
You can pierce with a cooking fork to know if the yam is soft enough for consumption. You can add vegetable, it is very nice for porridge yam even though I omitted it while making the delicious recipe above.
Cook for another three to five minutes and you just made my favorite porridge yam recipe with mashed chicken wings.
I have another delicious yam porridge recipe which is even much popular in our home, well, it shares resemblance to what I did above the only difference is the use of vegetable instead of chicken as you can see below.
Here is a plate of Nigerian porridge yam, this is the most popular recipe in our home.
The only different like I said above is just the use of vegetables here (fluted pumpkin), so if you want to make this particular recipe just follow the same procedure outlined above, forget about the chicken and use only fluted pumpkin…. or not!
Fry five spoons of tomato paste in 100ml of heated palm oil as usual, add water and all the other ingredients, also add the sliced yam, cover and cook for ten to fifteen minutes before adding the vegetables.
You will get the exact image you find above in you chose to not add vegetables, that is exactly how it is made in most Nigerian restaurants and eatries.
After the vegetables, allow to simmer for 3 minutes and stir together with a wooden turner until it thickens into a (porridge yam)
This is how to make yam porridge with vegetables in Nigeria. it is surely one of the easiest and most delicious Nigerian lunch recipe
