Each household have their own way of making egusi soup more appealing! A number of people add diced tomatoes; some add crayfish (dried shrimps), some include smoked fish and some even include fresh vegetables… Moi? My favorite ingredient….. Garlic… Yes, garlic in combination to the aforementioned ingredients including Maggie cubes for a sumptuous egusi soup.
Egusi aka Egwusi soup is an exotic soup that is cooked, in various parts of West Africa and goes under different aliases. Egusi is a wild member of the gourd family, with very dry skin and bitter flesh. It looks the same as watermelon seeds but tastes quite differently. They are extremely nutritious- high in protein and oil. They are often used in West Africa as a thickening agent in soups and add depth to most soups.
In Cameroon, it is sometimes used to make Egusi pudding; a highly addictive pudding. These seeds can only be purchased in an African store or online, but if you are in West Africa, they are available in most markets. Store it in the refrigerator and it will stay fresh for more than a year. In this recipe, I sauté stewing chicken with; onions, tomatoes, garlic and crayfish. Smoked fish is optional, however, it adds some smokiness to the meal .Then I throw in ground egusi and finally , stir in some frozen chopped spinach . You can use any fresh greens that you have.
Most people love having chunks of egusi in their soup. In order to achieve this consistency, a tiny bit of water/stock is added to the ground egusi. Then carefully drop the egusi lumps into the sauce without any stirring until lumps are formed. During this process there should be very little stirring happening to the pot until the lumps have been fully formed. Serve egusi soup to accompany and fufu or along with any starch (plantains, coco, yams or rice). [adthrive-in-post-video-player video-id=”gg6OVEkl” upload-date=”2020-03-07T23:06:02.000Z” name=”Egusi Soup (with lumps)” description=”Egusi Soup (with lumps) – a highly indulgent exotic soup popular in most West African countries made with egusi seeds added with chicken, crayfish and smoked fish or depending on one’s personal preference. A soup that is hearty and oozing with earthy flavors!” player-type=”default” override-embed=”default”]
