Soup Archives - Food of Africa

Ogbono soup recipe from Nigeria

Ogbono soup is a nigerian stew which consists mainly out of the stew made from Ogbono seeds. Ogbono is the local name for a Mango-like tree which produces fruits similar to the common Mango. The tree is also known as african Mango or Wild Mango. There are many different varieties of the Ogbono soup recipe found in Nigeria, but most of these recipes consist of some type of meat, okra and ground ogbono seeds. It is really popular in the whole of Nigeria and neighbouring countries like Benin and Cameroon. The dried ogbono seeds are sold whole or already ground in many local african stores. If you can not find Ogbono seeds you can try to replace them by pumpkin seeds. You can serve your delicious Ogbono stew with either fufu or rice.

How to cook Ogbono soup recipe?

Chop your onions, tomatoes, chilis and meat into tiny cubes.

Grind your Ogbono seeds (or pumpkin) if you bought whole seeds and heat a little bit of palm oil in a pan to fry your ground ogbono seeds for around 1 minute and take of the fire.

Heat around a quarter cup of palm oil in another big pot and fry your onions and chilis for 3 minutes. add the meat and tomatoes and fry for another 5 minutes.

Now add water (3 cups) and 1 Maggi Cube to the pot and boil for 45 minutes with closed lit on low fire.

after the meat is tender add the cabbage (cut into pieces) or fresh spinach leaves together with the fried ground ogbono seeds and stire it in well and let it cook for another 20 minutes.

Your delicious Nigerian Ogbono Soup is ready to be served! 🙂

The seeds of the Egusi plant

Egusi is a certain type of squash/watermelon plant which has fruits

the egusi fruit

with a quit bitter taste by itself and the flesh of it is not consumed. However the seeds of the Egusi are used in one of the most favourite Nigerian dishes in the world : Egusi soup or stew. Some also use the seeds of any other squash like plants to prepare the Egusi sauce, but to have the real authentic nigerian taste try to find the real Egusi seeds (whole or grounded) which are properly sold in your local African store. Egusi soup, which is more like a stew since is quit thick and most of the time served with beef is one of the most common dishes from the south of Nigeria and is eaten by the whole nigerian nation.

How to make Nigerian Egusi soup?

to make Nigerian Egusi one needs to find its main ingredient: the grounded Egusi seeds in your local ethnic store. Like said before one can also use the seeds of similar fruits like Squash or Melon. In this recipe we have chosen to make egusi soup with beef, but one can also change the beef for chicken or any other meat. Many Nigerians also like to have it with either oxtail or tripe. One can serve the Egusi soup best with pounded yam or fufu.

the ingredients for Egusi from Nigeria

(ground) Egusi seeds – 600 Gram
Beef (Oxtail or Tripe) – 500 Gram
Palm Oil (Red)
Pumpkin leaves (or cabage or fresh spinash if not available)
maggi cubes
Salt & Peper

nigerian egusi stew ingredients how to prepare egusi soup

how to cook the Egusi Soup?

cut the beef in big cubes and boil in 1 liter of water with 3 cubes of Maggi untill it turns very tender.
If you bought whole egusi seeds you should grind them first
Wash the pumpkin leaves (or cabage/spinash)
put 4 tablespoons of Red palm oil in a different pot on low fire until the oil turns clear
add the ground Egusi to the oil and fry it on low fire (make sure it doesn’t burn by sturing it around allot) until it turns dry
now add the beef + stock (the water where the beef was boilt in) in the pot of Egusi and add more water if it seems too dry.
Cook the beef + Egusi for about 30 minutes on low fire with closed lid
Now add the pumpkin leaves and cook it for a bit and mix it well in.
Serve your delicious Nigerian Egusi Soup with either Fufu or Pounded Yam. Enjoy!!!