How to Cook Egusi Soup

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By JuliesWorld
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Egusi soup is a popular Nigerian soup eaten with foufou/fufu or pounded yams or white rice. If you have always wanted to try a west African dish or just simply want to suprise your Nigerian friend(s), Egusi soup is very easy to make and very delicious even for first timers. Join me.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Fresh or Frozen meat, e.g chicken, fish, steak, escargot/snail, shrimp, smoked fish etc.
Palm oil
water
Diced Onions
Diced Tomatoes
A pack of Frozen spinach or Collard greens. Fresh ones are better.
salt
Cayenne Pepper
Knorr Beef Bouillon seasoning found in any farmer's market
Ground Egusi in a pack found at African food stores and several farmer's markets.

Step 1

First, season your meat however you like and steam it. You can cook Egusi soup without meat but if you want to use meat, you can use any kind of meat you have. Chicken, fish, goat meat, tofu you name it and also add all in the same soup if you want.
Step 2

Heat up an empty pot to make sure it is completely dry and pour in a cup of Palm oil. Let the oil heat up till it is almost smokey.
Step 3

Add your diced tomatoes and onions and let them fry in the hot oil for at most ten minutes until it looks cooked enough. You can also add sliced peppers without using ground dry pepper to make it spicy hot. Use your discretion.
Step 4

Next, add the ground Egusi and cayenne pepper (if you haven't added pepper in yet), in the same pot with the cooking tomatoes and onions and and some water according to how thick or watery you want it, but make sure it is not too watery.
Step 5

Stir with a cooking spoon, cover the pot and let boil for five minutes. Feel free to stir from time to time while it boils, at this point you will smell the aroma of the soup.
Step 6

Now, add salt and Knorr Beef Bouillon seasoning to taste. Stir to distribute evenly.
Step 7

Next, add your already cooked meat(s), stir the soup and cover the pot to let it cook for another seven minutes.
Step 8

Finally, add you already chopped spinach or collard greens and stir the soup again to distribute all into the soup. Cover the pot and this time let the soup cook for 15mins. Stir the soup in between to make sure it doesn't get burnt at the bottom of your pot. When the soup is well cooked, it is ready to be served with white rice.