Nigerian Pepper Soup (spiced goat broth)

Recipe No.: W-82

InternationalNigerian100 minServes 4

In Nigeria, pepper soup is served at gatherings and for welcoming guests: a clear, fiery broth perfumed with a blend of local spices such as ehu (African nutmeg) and uziza. It is made with goat, chicken or fish and eaten hot on cold and rainy days. It is said that some families serve it to a mother after childbirth and that many people reach for it with a cold, but that is folk tradition rather than medicine.

Origin of the dish: Nigeria (the Niger Delta and the south) — A common soup among the Igbo, Efik, Ijaw and others, made with goat, chicken or fish

Photo: Goat meat pepper soup served with bread.jpg by Nancy Nwachukwu, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Ingredients for Nigerian Pepper Soup

• 800 gbone-in halal goat meat (lamb or beef can be used)
• 1onion, chopped
• 1 tbspgrated ginger
• 3 clovesgarlic, crushed
• 1halal stock cube
• 2 tbsppepper soup spice mix (usually ehu, uziza, alligator pepper and grains of selim), or substitute ½ tsp grated nutmeg + 1 tsp ground black pepper + a pinch of cloves
• 1–3hot peppers (scotch bonnet), to taste, crushed
• a handful ofuziza leaves, basil or scent leaves, chopped
• 1½ tspsalt
• 6 cups(about 1.5 litres) water

Method

1. Wash the meat and put it in a pot with the onion, ginger, garlic, stock cube, salt and 1 cup of water, and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes.
2. Add the rest of the water, bring to a boil and skim off the foam.
3. Lower the heat and cook for 60–70 minutes (or 25–30 minutes in a pressure cooker) until the meat is tender.
4. Add the spice mix and the crushed pepper and cook for 15 minutes.
5. Add the green leaves and turn off the heat after 2 minutes.
6. Adjust the salt and heat, and serve hot in deep bowls with bread, rice or boiled yam.

Try the interactive Chef Meerath on the main site · هذه الوصفة بالعربية