How To Make Gbegiri Soup/Abula: An African Meal

Last week Friday, I satisfied myself with a long time soup. When I had to flash back to the last time I ate this soup, it was over 15 years ago. I could still remember those days when mom would either cook this soup for us or when she would send us on an errand to go buy her food (Amala) at a popular canteen joint. She would emphasise being served Gbegiri soup with it, and if not, I shouldn't buy it at all. She loved the soup and made us enjoy it, too, as a family.

_{Abula: mixture of gbegiri, ewedu and stew}

Gbegiri is a soup made with beans and this is why, in English, it's called "beans soup". It is a healthy soup rich in protein. There is another name for it in my tribe called "Abula" which is the mixture of Gbegiri, Ewedu and Stew. This is what I prepared on Friday to satisfy my cravings and I did enjoy it with Amala, a Nigerian solid meal made with yam flour. The next day, I tried the Gbegiri soup with Semovita as suggested by my sister and it turned out to be a delicious combination 😋

Gbegiri is an easy-to-prepare soup, and the ingredients aren't very expensive. Most people prepare this soup in different ways and no matter how you prepare it, you will still enjoy the outcome.

So, let me take you through how I prepared mine.

Ingredients for Gbegiri:
_{Beans | Palm oil | Dried pepper | Seasoning cube | Salt to taste | Water
All the ingredients in the image are for Gbegiri, ewedu and stew.}

The first thing I did was to soak the beans for a few minutes to get them soft. Then went ahead to peel and remove the shaft. After that was done, I transferred the peeled beans to the pot and sliced some onions to cook until it was very soft.

When the beans are soft, I mashed with a broom till it's smooth. You can also use a spoon or spatula instead of a broom. Then next was sieving to remove the particles.

I transferred the sieved beans back to a pot and added palm oil, seasoning cube, salt and dried pepper. I stirred and cooked for a few minutes, and the Gbegiri soup was done.

I moved on to prepare my ewedu soup. It is called jute leaves in English.

I removed the jute leaves from the sticks and washed them thrice. I put the locust beans and potash in a pot where I boiled. Then, I poured my jute leaves into it until it was soft. I mashed with a broom until soft and cooked for a few seconds.

The next thing was preparing my stew.

Finally, Gbegiri soup is ready with others served with my Amala.

You can also view the whole process in the video I made.

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_{All images are mine}