Egusi soup is one of the most popular soups in Nigeria. This soup is made from melon seed and it's very tasty, rich in protein and fat. There are different ways of cooking egusi. I have four different recipes which i'll be sharing starting with lumpy egusi aka Oshiki as my Yoruba people call it... I'm going with this first because many people don.t know the technique of making their egusi lumpy.
INGREDIENTS
2 cups melon seed (grounded)
2 maggi cubes ( or any stock cubes of your choice)
1 cup palmoil
2 scotch bonnet
1 bell pepper
1 400g tin plum tomatoes (optional)
1 brown onion
1 red onion
Salt
Assorted meat (Beef, tripe, ponmo,etc..)
Stock fish- panla (optional)
Dry catfish (optional)
2 tablespoon grounded crayfish
Locust - Iru
Beef stock
Vegetable of choice( spinach, ugu, green, etc..)
COOKING DIRECTIONS
*Wash, season and boil the beef and assorted meats. I always boil my beef separately from the offals.
*Blend the scotch bonnet, bell pepper, plum tomato and red onion.
*Blend the brown onion and mix this with the grounded melon seed to form a paste.
Melon seed mixed with onion
*Put palmoil in frying pan, set on the cooker and heat. Then bring down the frying pan, let the palmoil cool a bit and scoop the melon paste into the palmoil and put back on the cooker as in the picture below. The reason for cooling the palmoil and putting the egusi when not on the cooker is so that the egusi doesn't overfry and give you crunchy and not nicely coloured egusi balls.
Now the frying pan is back on the cooker, stir the egusi and you will see it start curdling up. Stir for 1 minute and take off the cooker. (Be careful not to overfry)
You honestly do not need to fry for more than one minute to achieve the egusi balls.
egusi balls
Egusi balls drained of palmoil
Now put pot for cooking the egusi on the cooker, drain the palm oil from the fried egusi into the pot then add the blended pepper, maggi cubes and Beef stock. Cover the pot and leave to cook for 10minutes.
After the 10minutes, open the pot and stir the stew, then add salt to taste. Also add the dry fish, assorted meat and locust at this stage and let it cook for another 5 minutes.
Open the pot and scoop in the egusi balls.
Adding the fried egusi
If like me you don't like the egusi lumps too big, just break down the egusi with spoon to your desired lump size .
Now add the blended crayfish and leave the egusi to cook for 10minutes.
At the end of the 10minutes, add vegetable to the soup. Add the vegetable quantity that suits your preference. I personally like the vegetable sparsely populated in my egusi soup.
The cooking time after adding vegetables depends on the vegetable used. I used spinach so I took it off the cooker after two minutes. If you are using pumpkin leaves (ugu) you can leave it for 5minutes before taking off the cooker.
Vegetable added to Egusi
Finally, you have lumpy egusi soup???? . Serve with Eba, pounded yam, semo, etc..
I served mine with Eba..delicious.
Splendid. Must try the lumpy egusi
Interesting. Nice but it's been a while I eat this soup. Majorly, I was searching for the history of oshiki soup in Yoruba land if really it is osiki or oshiki. I will appreciate whoever can help me out with the finding. [email protected]
Very appealing ! Will try this out after Ramadan
Thanks Kike. Don't forget to feedback when you do. Ramadan kareem????
Thank you jare...The eba went well oh...infact i had sweet dreamz.....thanks dear...Regards to your lovely girls...Eba roll is the reigning thing now,lol
Lol at sweetdreams. Yes now sweetdreams are made of good food ke. Good for you. Will do. Thanks dear 🙂
Hello Olukemi,
Kemostic kemostic!! Waa gbayi!
Your egusi style is like the most stress-free egusi ive cooked . and the funny thing is that it came out so nice, with the veggies still green and intact. See me dancing azonto in my kitchen..I had to ask my sister to check out your blog too (She actually knows you, cos she went to Babcock too)
I tried your apple cinnamon bread last week ( i left you a message) and here i am testifying about your egusi method.
Thanks a bunch and i will be trying the eba roll with the egusi later tonight.
Go Girl!!! You Rock!
Hello Wumi,
I so like your sic 'Kemostic Kemostic wa gbayi' and actually laughed when I read it (thanks for that 🙂 ). Good to hear u nailed another of my recipes. You see I so like making my recipes as stress free as possible as long as it yields great result.
What's your sister's name?guess i'll know her too as she knows me. Small world it is. Have fun with the Eba roll and enjoy your dinner dear xx
[email protected] Glad you like it...wink wink***
My sister's name is Bukunmi. She was in Nyberg hall (yes i remember the name clearly cos i visted that place too much, chei,lol)
If u dont know her its okay cos i know you babcock people always know each other , i asked her to visit your blog and she saw your pic and said yeah i know her
yeah, im actually ready to prepare the eba now so thanks...yum yum in advance....
You've just taken me down memory lane. Nyberg hall! I am now sure I will know her cos I was in Nyberg hall for a long time. My regards to her. I'm sure by now the Eba and egusi must have digested 🙂
pls, hw wil i drained out d palm oil from the egusi, with spoon
Hello Pelumi. You will scoop the Palm oil with cooking spoon from the frying pan into the pot for cooking.Follow the steps as in the picture.Hope my answer helps..Happy cooking????
I'm so impressed nd educated.This is so detailed.Tnx,av learnt so much.D eba sausage rocks!
I'm glad you are Adekemi and thank you???? . The Eba roll post coming up soon.
Tried this method kemi nd I got an AA+ from hubby, nice..well-done!
That's great Ife..Weldone you!????
Looks very interesting. I want ....
Get cooking????
Welldone kemi !I intend2try dis method...have been tryn2figure out though ow2 roll up d eba in 2 d sausage style
Thanks Ifeoluwa. Do try it and let me know how it goes. As for the Eba , I simply laid cling film, put d Eba on it and rolled it out wit rolling pin, picked it up and rolled sausage like. Perhaps I should make a detailed post on the Eba roll????
One more thing, i totally love the way you presented the Eba. See good ol Eba looking all exotic. Good job
Thanks Krystal. Plating really goes a long way in food appeal..my hubby that doesn't even eat Eba was impressed and kept referring to it as Eba sausage????
You ma'am always deliver. Well done
Oh thank you! I try my best????
Thanks for the recipe
My pleasure ????