Egusi soup recipe

Dry-milled melon seeds dropped into the stock in lumps that set and cake, then broken up into a thick palm-oil soup with beef, dried fish and bitter greens.

1 hour and 30 minutesmedium11 ingredients

Ingredients

• 400 g egusi melon seeds
• 120 ml red palm oil
• 30 g ground crayfish
• 500 g beef
• 150 g dried fish
• 3 scotch bonnet pepper
• 300 g pumpkin leaves
• 1 onion
• 15 g locust bean seasoning
• 2 stock cube
• 5 g salt

How to make Egusi soup

1. Soak 150 g of dried fish 30 minutes in warm water, then debone it and break it into chunks.
2. Grind 400 g of egusi seeds dry in a mill; do not blend them with water, a smooth wet paste will never cake.
3. Boil 500 g of beef with 1 chopped onion, 2 stock cubes and 5 g of salt in 1 l of water for 40 minutes, then add the fish.
4. Mix the ground egusi with a little of the hot stock into a stiff paste and drop it into the simmering pot in lumps, without stirring.
5. Cover and cook 10 minutes so the lumps set, then break them up roughly with a spoon and cook 10 minutes more.
6. Pour in 120 ml of red palm oil, 150 g of ground crayfish, 3 blended scotch bonnets and 15 g of locust bean seasoning, and simmer 10 minutes uncovered.
7. Stir in 300 g of shredded pumpkin leaves, cook 5 minutes and take the pot off the heat.
8. Serve hot with pounded yam, eba or fufu.

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