Vegetarian egusi soup
Local name: Egusi
Ground melon seeds cooked in red palm oil with tomato and chilli until they set into curds, then finished with spinach.
Photo: Bukky658 · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 40 min
- Total
- 55 min
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- Medium
Method
- Mix the ground egusi with 120 ml water into a thick paste. Let it stand for 10 minutes.
- Heat the palm oil in a heavy pot over medium heat for 3 minutes, until it clears. Keep it off smoking point.
- Fry the chopped onion for 5 minutes, then add the blended onion and chillies. Cook for 5 minutes.
- Add the blended tomatoes and reduce for 10 minutes, until the oil rises.
- Drop the egusi paste into the pot in spoonfuls and leave it alone. Cover and cook for 10 minutes: the spoonfuls set into curds.
- Pour in the stock, add the miso and salt, then break each curd into two or three pieces with a spoon. Simmer for 10 minutes.
- Stir in the spinach and cook for 5 minutes. Serve with fufu or white rice.
Leave the pot alone once the egusi paste goes in: the spoonfuls coagulate into the curds that give the soup its recognisable texture, a method Nigerian cooks call frying. Stir it straight away and the egusi disperses into a smooth porridge instead.
