What is Cooking:
This is a skill or practice put in place to add two or more ingredients together through the process of heating to prepare a food.
Preparing of Egusi Soup in Nigeria is just so simple and easy when you have all the ingredients at hand and is one of the best soup in the country. Cooking does not only heat up a food but it also kill some bacteria that are likely to be present in it, for instance, raw meat are prone to carry bacteria and they need to be cooked to kill the bacteria present in it.
Types of Soup in Nigeria
In Nigeria, there are 3 ethnics that makeup the country which are {Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa} and obviously there will be different types of soup and the types of soups includes;
- Egusi soup
- Okro soup
- Stew soup
- Ogbono soup
- Banga soup
- Efo riro (Vegetable soup)
Since there are hundreds of soup in Nigeria from different ethnic groups. In this article, we will be writing about how to cook Egusi soup, since Egusi is a eating across all the tribes in Nigeria. it is more or less like a general soup in Nigeria.
Methods of Cooking Egusi Soup
There are two ways we can go about cooking Egusi soup in Nigeria
- Cooking by frying the Egusi
- Cooking without frying the Egusi
Before getting started in the cooking we must make sure we have all our ingredient ready at once.
Firstly, go to the market and get all the stuffs need for the soup.
Ingredient needed for Egusi soup includes; Egusi (Melon), pepper, tomatoes, onion, red oil, meat, fish (any type), cow skin, crayfish, smoked fish, locust bean, salt, magi and water
1. Cooking by frying the Egusi (Melon) before cooking.
First thing is to clean and wash your melon very well and blend smoothly
Then put up your tomatoes, pepper, onions together and blend in a separate bowl
After that wash all the meats, fishes, cow-skin and crayfish in a separate bowl
Put the blended melon in a clean bowl after blending, and add little salt and sliced onion to it
After that, wash your pot so clean and put on a low heat temperature (gas or electric cooker)
Then add red oil to the pot on the gas
Then add the mixture of the blended melon and salt and sliced onion to the red oil on the temperature (gas)
Then start stirring for like 10minutes, be vigilant not to burnt off of the Egusi (melon)
After that, the melon must have done by then and you can decides to pack it from the pot and add your blended vegies(tomatoes, pepper and other things) or you leave the fried egusi inside the pot and add your vegies (tomatoes, peppers), now you can add magi and salt to your taste, add all the washed meats, fishes, cow skin and every other thing you wish to add and cover up the pot and for like 10 minutes
At the time the pot is on the temperature, get your ugu sliced and wash very well to avoid little sands while eating, after washing your ugu so clean and nice then add it to the pot of stew on the temperature (gas or electric cooker) and cover it for another 15 minutes and is ready to eat.
2. Cooking Without Frying the Egusi
This second method or step is very straight forward and saves time, first thing to do is to get our pot washed and clean, then put all together out vegies including the Egusi and blend everything together, at the period of doing that, have all your meats, fishes, crayfish, cowskin and everything you wish to put in it washed and clean. Then after blending of your vegies, pour everything in your cooking pot and put on a low temperature (gas or electric cooker), at this point add all your meats, salt, magi and locust bean and cover up and cook for 15 minutes.
Then have your sliced ugu washed and clean, then add to what you have on the temperature and cook for another 10minutes and your soup. meanwhile ugu is optional in this second method.
Conclusion
This Egusi soup is one of the best soup across Nigeria and mostly prepared in any kind of occasion like wedding ceremony, Funeral ceremony even during some festival it is mostly prepared and it can go along with any kind of swallow food like, poundo-yam, Wheat, Semo and others.