Cooking egusi soup can be quite expensive depending on the taste you want to achieve. In Nigeria, it is generally believed that the more ingredients you add the sweeter your soup would be.

In some cases this is true.

But in this recipe, I will be writing about how to cook egusi soup on a small budget and also achieve a delicious soup.

Trust me, this is very possible.

As we continue, let me tell you a little about egusi soup.

About Egusi Soup

Some people call it egusi stew but the correct name is egusi soup. Egusi soup is a very popular Nigerian soup cooked with a wide variety of animal proteins such as seafoods – fish, periwinkles,crayfish, prawns, and many more – beef, chicken, turkey and even bush meat.

This soup derives its name from the main ingredient which is egusi seeds. Egusi seeds are extracted from mature egusi plant fruit. After the fruit is cut and the seeds extract, the seeds are properly cleaned with water .

This proper cleaning reveals shelled yellow seeds which are then properly dried.

Traditionally, the sun drying method was used to dry the shelled seed but in recent times, mechanical drying equipments are used for efficiency and to fast track production because of the ever-growing demand for egusi nationally and internationally.

After drying, the flexible yellow shell of the egusi seeds are peeled by hand or with the use of a machine to get the white egusi seeds which are used to cook egusi soup.

How to cook egusi soup

Egusi is a very common soup and as a result there are several egusi soup recipes. Although the use of egusi seeds when cooking egusi soup is compulsory, several other ingredients can also be included depending on the taste you crave or want to achieve.

Some of the common ingredients are:

• Ugu leaves click here for recipe
• Bitter leaf
• Okro Find recipe here
• Ewedu leaves
• Okazi/ukazi leaves
• Efirin or scent leaves or basil leaves
• Amunututu leaves find recipe here

Ingredients for Egusi Soup

• 1¼ cups egusi seeds
• 4 Eja panla/panla egun (roasted hake fish)
• ponmo (cowskin)
• 2 medium sized onions
• ½ cup crayfish
• ½ cup palm oil
• 6 ata rodo (scotch bonnet peppers)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ tablespoon seasoning powder or 2 cubes seasoning
• 3 cups water

Let’s cook egusi soup

• Clean eja panla or panla egun (roasted hake fish) in water to remove the dirts or dust that may be attached to it.
• Remove the fish head while cleaning so that it does not crumble in your soup thereby filling your soup with bones
• Put cleaned fishes in a basket to drain the water
• Clean the ponmo ijebu in water to also remove the dirt – if you want to know how to soften or clean your ponmo ijebu either fresh or dried click here
• Put a clean pot on your cooker
• Add the egusi seed and dry fry on medium heat for 1-3 minutes – stir the egusi continuously to avoid getting burnt
• Add crayfish to the dry fried egusi
• Dry fry for 1-2 more minutes
• Pour the dry fried egusi and crayfish into your blender
• Add onions and scotch bonnet peppers
• Blend to a smooth paste
• Put a clean pot on your cooker
• Pour palm oil into the pot and allow it heat up briefly – do not allow it heat up to smoking point
• Put cleaned fishes into the hot oil and fry both sides briefly for 3-6 minutes
• Add the blended egusi paste
• Also rinse out the blender with little water and pour it into the mixture on
• Add ponmo, salt and seasoning powder or seasoning cubes
• Mix gently and cook for 5 minutes
• After 5 minutes, mix the egusi soup to check the soup’s thickness
• If the egusi soup is too thick add more water
• If you are satisfied with the thickness, then let it cook for 10 more minutes
• After another 5 minutes, mix the egusi soup so that it does not burn
• Cook for 5 more minutes and egusi soup is ready

You can also watch the video of this recipe on YouTube. Also, don’t forget to follow my YouTube channel The Online Cook