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It's your favorite girl @debbie-ese 😍
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About three days ago, I posted that I bought some food items in the market for the family. One of the things I bought that I wanted to use to prepare soup is Melon seeds (Egusi) and the other ingredients such as fish, scotchbonnet, onions, seasonings etc. Egusi soup is a popular soup in Nigeria across all tribes. If you'd list the first five soups in Nigeria, Egusi soup will be included. This soup is quite unique that it can be prepared in different ways - the frying method and the boiling method. Egusi soup is usually enjoyed with swallows (pounded yam, Semovita, amala, fufu, garri), rice and maybe yam.
Based on my mood, I can use either the frying or boiling method to prepare my egusi soup. The boiling method is easy and takes less time to be done. Unlike the frying method where you have to fry the egusi in palm oil first with onions and seasoning before adding some water. In this post, I shall be showing you the boiling method that I used in preparing my egusi soup.
INGREDIENTS
Egusi seeds
Spinach leaves
Oziza leaves
Onions
Garlic - Scotch bonnet, red bell pepper, tomatoes
Palm oil
Crayfish
Locust beans (Iru or dawadawa)
Okpei
Seasoning cubes
Seasoning powder
Salt
Step by Step
First and foremost, we'd prep all the ingredients we would be using for the soup.
Use your blender to blend your melon seeds and set aside.
Wash the scotch bonnet, tomatoes, onions, red bell pepper thoroughly and move into your blender. Add your locust beans (iru or dawadawa), Okpei and crayfish. Blend all together to create your pepper mix. Set aside.
Wash your spinach and Oziza leaves. Slice into your desired sizes. Set aside.
Wash your fish as well and set aside.
Now let's start with the cooking process since we are done with the prepping.
In a pot add some water and allow to boil. Next, gently pour in your pepper mix. At this point you can add your fish so that it can begin to cook.
When the pepper mix is getting done and the fish is cooking as well, you can pour in your palm oil.
After like 8 minutes you can remove the fish from the pot and set aside in a plate.
Now, gently whisk in the ground egusi seeds that you have mixed with some water into the pot and allow to cook well. Let it cook until it is done. If the egusi is not well cooked it can lead to running stomach.
Add your seasoning cubes, seasoning powder, salt and cover to cook.
When the egusi is well cooked, add your sliced leaves (Oziza and spinach). Allow to simmer for some minutes.
Taste the soup to ensure that all the ingredients are in the right proportion. Then put off the heat.
You can accompany the soup with any swallow of your choice.
The next routine that I follow after preparing my soups is to package them in plastic containers and store them in the freezer. Due to the busy nature of my work I don't have the time to be cooking soup during the week, so I make them during the weekend and store them for later use.
