EGUSI SOUP AND POUNDED YAM IS SERVED! LEARN HOW TO MAKE THE PERFECT EGUSI SOUP

I am yet to see someone resist a delicious meal of egusi soup. Egusi soup is a  Nigerian delicacy usually served with pounded yam, eba or fufu.

Yummy Egusi and Pounded Yam

nice presentation

A meaty Egusi Delight

CALORIE CONTENT OF EGUSI AND POUNDED YAM

Pounded yam is so high in Calories, its Scary. A medium slice of yam contains almost 330 calories, but i guess, everyone has a different perception of the word medium. So I would use the dessert spoon measurement.

The Dessert spoon is one which is larger than a teaspoon but smaller than a table spoon.

One dessert spoon of pounded yam contains 10g of carbohydrate, which equals 40 calories from carbohydrates alone. Remember, this is just the carbohydrate count, protein and fat hasnt been added.

It is hard to actually calculate the calorie content of pounded yam, because this depends on how much you are actually eating, but if you can picture your pounded yam being fitted into a cup (our normal milk tin cup), then a cup of pounded yam contains 400 calories

The basic Egusi Soup enriched with few chunks of stockfish and two pieces of meat contains a total of roughly 700 calories per serving!!! Imagine eating it with about 3 wraps of iyan which is about 600 calories……….

The largest food group it contains is Fat. Egusi is very high in fat content. It has about 60% fat. Talk less of we Yorubas that love adding lots of palm oil to our egusi soup.

It also has about 11 percent carbohydrate of which 0 percent is fibre which is supposed to be good for weight loss. Proteins make up 30 percent while other elements make up the rest.

But that’s not all, Egusi actually has good qualities.

a. The fat in egusi is cholesterol free. Meaning its not damaging to the heart. You may put on pounds when taking lots of egusi, but you wold be sure that its not detrimental to your heart directly.

b.It contains certain nutrients which are good for the skin, good for fertility and reproduction.

So in conclusion, egusi has good properties as a food on its own, but for weight watchers and those on low fat diets, i would suggest you stick more to plain okra soups ad vegetable soups, and limit your egusi intake.
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LEARN HOW TO MAKE EGUSI SOUP


Egusi seeds (Grounded, 1-2 cups)
Palm oil ¾ - 1½ cup
Bitter Leaf - freshly squeezed, or dried or spinach / ugwu / any other fresh vegetable as may be available
Cray fish about ¼ cup grounded
Dried pepper or chilli 1 table spoonful or to taste
Maggi cubes or Knorr 1 – 2 cubes
Thyme about ½ teaspoonful
Curry Powder ½ - 1 teaspoonful
Real African Red Onions - spicy. 1 – 3 (Chopped)
Cooking salt
Fresh or smoked fish or stock fish
Goat meat (chopped to size)
Assorted meat – beef, ox tail, cow tongue, chicken, as can be obtained, about ½ kg each
Chopped tomatoes (blended)
Fresh pepper with or substituted for grounded dried pepper.


Cooking Method

If you are using stock fish, be sure to have soaked the stock fish in water overnight to make it soft and cook faster.
Put your goat meat and or assorted meat into a pot. Add cooking salt, 1 bulb of onion, chopped to small sizes, ½ teaspoonful of thyme, curry powder, and a small amount of water (about 2cups), one or two maggi cubes and bring to boil for about 30 minutes until soft and tender to taste.
While that is cooking, put your chopped tomatoes (1-2 tins), fresh and or dried pepper, 1 bulb of real African red onions into a blender and blend to a smooth paste
Your egusi seeds must have come in blended (grounded). If they are not, this is the time to grind them in a blender dried (in the small bit of the blender for dried materials). Take 1-2 cups of grounded egusi and put in a bowl, add 2 parts of water to a part of grounded egusi in the bowl and stir to form a paste. Some people do not do it this way. They leave the grounded egusi dry and stir fry it instead in palm oil. You can do it either way. Here, the first method will be used
The meat should have finished cooking by now. Get a big pot. Place it on the cooker and allow it to be hot, with all residue of water drying out. Do not let it burn though. Pour about ¾ - 1½ cup (150 – 300mls) of red palm oil in the pot. Be careful here, it could smoke and splash around, with risk of you been burnt! Allow the oil to warm for about 1 minute. Pour the blended tomatoes, fresh/dried pepper, onion paste into the oil and stir fry for about another 10 -15 mutes.
Now add the cooked meat to this base of stew and cover the pot and allow to simmer for about 3 minutes. Stir intermittently to prevent burning.

The egusi paste (or fried) can now be added to the stew with meat in it. Add your vegetables here, salt and one or two cubes of maggi if still required to taste and bring to boil for about 10 minutes. Stir intermittently.
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HOW TO MAKE YORUBA STYLE EGUSI WITH NICE CLUMPS
Ingredients


1/4 cup Groundnut oil*
3 table spoons palm oil
1 cup egusi
1 cup chopped spinach
1/2 cup pepper sauce
2 Bouillon cubes (Maggi)
1 Tablespoon Crayfish
1 teaspoon salt (to taste)
1 teaspoon locust beans
1/4 cup Ede (Dried shrimps) (Optional)
Precooked meat and fish of choice

DIRECTIONS WITH PICTURES

Combine  the egusi with 2 table spoons of water, mix until you have a thick paste

Set a medium sized pot on medium heat, add in the groundnut oil. With a teaspoon, ball up the egusi mixture and drop into the oil. fry for 3 minutes.

Add 11/2 cups of water into the fried egusi, cover and bring to a rolling boil

Break up the egusi clump into smaller bite size pieces

Add in the all other ingredients apart from the palm oil. Cover and simmer on medium heat for 10-12mins.

almost done

yummy

...........and thats how to make Delicious EGUSI SOUP...ENJOY YOUR MEAL...


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 Here is a very informative and entertaining video on how to make egusi soup: 

DONT FORGET TO SEND US PICTURES IF YOU DECIDE TO TRY THIS RECIPE..Enjoy your meal

REFERENCES


http://bakersfourthquarter.blogspot.com/2011/07/great-gobs-of-egusi-soup.html
http://chocolatechutzpah.wordpress.com/tag/food/
http://www.9jafoodie.com/2012/03/yoruba-style-egusi-soup/
http://www.naijazumba.com/?p=74
http://www.africanfoods.co.uk/egusi-soup.html