Few months ago when my mum was going back to Nigeria after a visit, she had bought healthy foods including bulgur, cous cous, and almonds because I informed her she could use almond to replace egusi in soup as I got that information in a food group.
I had reserved one pack of the grounded almonds from the ones she bought with intention of trying it and blogging about it but shortly after that i lost interest in cooking it. I remember asking my mum if she had tried it and she too had not. Fast forward to few days ago, Abiodun Oby Leonard posted almond soup in the food group Cook and Share. It looked beautiful just like egusi soup and I asked her how it tasted. She replied that it tastes just like egusi and encouraged me to try it out and that was exactly what i did last night.
All I can say is I wished I had tried this earlier. It tasted amazing, does not have 'sweet' taste that I thought it would have and personally egusi is going to be taking backseat for sometime.Thank you Abiodun 🙂
If you're reading this and thinking why almond when there is egusi, here is a summary of why:
Almonds are packed with vitamins, protein, minerals and fiber.
Almonds lower cholesterol and reduce risk of heart disease
Protects against diabetes and cardiovascular disease
Help prevent gallstones, good for the heart and if you are trying to lose weight, almonds healthy fats may help you do just that! So tell me why not Almond soup? Lets get cooking..
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 50 minutes
Total time: 55 minutes
INGREDIENTS
Grounded almond
Scotch bonnet and bell pepper (blended)
Onions (chopped)
1 cooking spoon Palm oil
3 Maggi cubes
Smoked fish
Stock fish
Beef stock
Locust beans (iru)
Salt
DIRECTIONS
1) Boil beef with chopped onions, maggi cube and salt.
2) When beef is tender, add the already boiled assorted meat, smoked fish add stock fish and leave to cook together for 5 minutes
3) Add blended pepper, palm oil, locust beans and crayfish. Cover and let cook for 5 minute
This soup requires just a little quantity of palm oil and to make it more healthy you can even omit Palm oil in this recipe.
4) Add the grounded almond, stir, cover the pot and leave to cook for 10-15 minutes
By now it looks just like Egusi Ijebu and taste delicious! You can eat it this way or go ahead to step 5 .
5) Add vegetables and leave to cook for another 3-5 minutes.
That's almond soup done.
So delicious and taste just like egusi soup! Considering the health benefits of almond, the cost of grounded almond where I live compared to egusi, this is one soup I am sure I will be making a lot.
Enjoy with any swallow of choice, rice , yam or plantain. Bon appetit 🙂
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thanks for the great recipe!
i wanted to ask if locust beans is so necessary here?
thanks again!
You're welcome Christina. Locust beans is not neccessary. You can leave it out.
thanks a lot for your answer!
and another question, how many Grams is the ground almonds?
Hello Kemi, I am a foodie like you..and i love love visiting your site...as it's so creative..which is spot on for me. And i do admire you...and soonest I will pop in to cuisine. Congratulations and i will try the almond soup. So much love. Xx
Hello Bunmi
Thanks for this. Sorry for the late response. It was lovely hosting you and your friends at the restaurant the other day. Many thanks for the patronage. Much love xx
Hi sister K.
what is the significance of starting some stew recipes with parboil pepper while others you start out with frying the oil and adding pepper straight from blender? Thanks 🙂
Hello Adura,
Apologies for responding late. It's simply because some stews taste better without parboiling pepper first example of such is fresh fish soup and most fish based stew recipe. I rarely parboil pepper in most of my stew recipes. It's individual preference 🙂
I finally tried the almond and it came it nice. I fried it and added tomatoes and the taste is very Ok not sweet. It doesn't come out lumpy though so a great alternative to smooth egusi soup!
Good to know it worked for you. Welldone. I have not tried making it lumpy before will be trying that sometimes soon
Where can I get almonds to buy
In supermarkets, baking stores and places nuts are sold
I am gonna give this a go. Good u confirmed it does not have sweet taste. I fear for Egusi ooo.
No it did not have sweet taste. I intentionally left out tomatoes and it was just perfect. Let me know how it goes when you try it 🙂