Different tribes in Nigeria cook their Egusi soups in different ways and each one has its own characteristic taste and texture. Today I take a virtual trip to Ijebu Ode in Southwest Nigeria to bring Egusi Ijebu. What makes this version any different? It does not come with any vegetables and the Egusi is dry fried to give the Egusi a nice toasty flavor.
I actually made two versions , the plain version and one with served with Ewedu. This is one reason why I like Yoruba cooking, they seem to think ahead in terms of creatively using one soup to produce several varying meals.
This is one soup to cook if you don’t want to hang around the kitchen watching over the boiling pot.
Recipe for Egusi Ijebu
Ingredients
2 cups Egusi
8-10 pieces Beef or Goat meat
1 cup Smoked Fish
2-3 chunks Stock fish
1/2 cup Smoked Prawns (optional)
1/2 medium size onion
Dry Pepper( ground)
Seasoning to taste
Salt to taste
Method
- Wash and season meat with salt, seasoning cube, a little onion and pepper and allow to marinade for 30 minutes, then boil till soft. If the Stockfish is tough then boil with the beef.
- Dry roast the Egusi in a frying pan until the seeds starts to pop like popcorn
- Take the Egusi off the burner and allow to cool then blend until very smooth at a point it even starts to look oily
- Wash the smoked fish and smoked prawns and set aside
- In an empty pot add the ground Egusi , beef , fish , stock fish, prawn, dry pepper, seasoning , palm oil and 3 cups of water and bring to boil for about 20 minutes or until soup thickens to right consistency.
- When soup thickens , you can then add the meat stock and remaining finely chopped onions . Boil for another 5 minutes, taste to correct seasoning
- Serve on its own with any swallow of choice or pair with Ewedu .
Dear Sis IQP, This is my 2nd time commenting even though I have been addicted to your blog for almost a year. The recipes and plating suit my sense of culinary adventure so perfectly, it is unbelievable. Well done a million times. Being coached personally by you and have a cooking date with you has joined my list of aspirations. Loool.
Okay, so to today’s recipe, should the Egusi be blended dry or wet? Would the normal home blender blend it to perfection? Would you get the same effect if you dry roast already blended Egusi?
Hi Enny, such pleasing words . Thank you for following my blog.. To blend the egusi, you do it with d dry ingredient part of d blender till quite smooth with home blender.You will not get d same texture if you roast already blended egusi
My late mum used to prepare dis soup once in a while with dried fish. Never knew it was called egusi ijebu. But d ewedu U add gavve urs a very nice twist.
This soup is mouth watering, I wonder which restaurant makes the best Egusi soup in Abuja
Hello Miriam. Thanks for your comment. I do not reside in Abuja and so may not know which restaurant cooks the best Egusi.