Egusi Soup with Scent Leaf

Weight watchers will usually avoid eating Egusi soup because of the oil content of the seeds. I lovethis soup myself but also try to reduce the frequency of eating for the same reason of avoiding weight gain. In today’s recipe I try to reduce the fat by squeezing out some of the oil and it is amazing how much oil you can get out. This simple act helps to reduce fat from the soup.

This is how I get out the oil: I mix the ground Egusi with blended onion. I then pound these together and after about 10 minutes the oil in the Egusi starts to appear in the mortar and the powder by now forms a dough.

I take out the dough and simply squeeze out oil by pressing hard between my hands. Trust me you can get out quite some quantity of oil by this simple process. The oil squeezed out can be used for other purposes.

I also find that when you squeeze out the oil, the Egusi forms lumps easier in the soup, particularly for those that have been wondering how to get the lumpy Yoruba type Egusi soup.

When cooking the Soup with scent leaf I combine the Egusi with squeezed out oil and some of the powder so that I get the desired thickness of the soup. Now I know that I can reduce the oil content in my soup.

The scent leaf in this recipe is used sparingly because it can be overpowering. If you don’t find scent leaf, then fresh basil will do.

Grab some swallow or rice and enjoy Egusi soup with Scent leaf.

 

Recipe for Egusi with Scent leaf

 

Ingredients

4-6 pieces Beef

Chunks of lightly smoked Mackerel Fish

2 segments of Stockfish (optional)

1/2 cup smoked Prawns

Pieces of Cowleg (optional)

2 cups Egusi, roasted and ground

1/2 handful Effirin leaf

1 medium size Onion

Yellow Pepper to taste

3 cooking spoons Tomato/ Pepper blend, previously boiled

1 teaspoon Crayfish

3 cooking spoons Palm oil or less if are avoiding oil.

Crayfish seasoning to taste

Salt to taste

Method for making Egusi soup with Scent leaf

 

1. Wash, season and cook the beef, cow leg and stockfish till soft.
2. Mix half of the ground Egusi with 1/2 the onion which is blended or grated.
3. Place Egusi in a mortar and pound with the onion till oil starts to appear.  Gather the dough into a ball and squeeze out as much oil as possible. Set the ”skimmed’ Egusi aside for use in the soup.
4. Heat the oil till hot and fry the remaining onion that would have been sliced. Fry till onion starts to brown around the edges, then add the tomato/ pepper blend. If the blend is not hot enough you can add extra pepper. Fry till tanginess goes off.
5. Add the washed smoked prawns, fish and crayfish and fry for about 2 minutes.
6. Pour in the meat, stock fish and the stock and some water and bring to boil.
7. Taste and correct the seasoning.
8. Cut up small pieces of the dough and add to the pot of soup whilst the soup is boiling. Allow the Egusi bits to set and stir with a wooden spoon. Gradually add the remaining Egusi powder until you have the desired consistency.
9. When soup thickens add the Effinrin last and turn off the heat. The Effirin is added in large chunks. When they are cut into smaller pieces the aroma is quite strong so I decide to add large chunks to reduce the strong aroma.
10. Serve your soup with any swallow of choice or rice.