Ingredients
-
2 Tsp Uziza leaves
-
1 pound goat meat
-
2 Tsp Crayfish
-
1 Tbs Pepper soup spice
-
1 Tsp Red Chili flakes
-
1 Tsp Ginger powder
-
1 Tsp Saltto taste
-
1 small onion
-
1 Scotch bonnet de-seededand minced
-
1 seasoning cubes
-
4 Cups Water
Directions
Nigerian Pepper Soup is an easy, hearty comfort food very popular in West Africa. It is also known as African Pepper soup and, as the name implies, it is a hot and spicy broth made with a blend of aromatic African spices. I have used goat meat in this recipe. However, you can also chicken, lamb, beef, or fish. It can be served with white rice and/or boiled yam.
How to Make Nigerian Pepper Soup:
- Cut the goat meat into cutlets. Then rinse thoroughly and transfer to a pot. Add the salt, seasoning, habanero peppers, and half of the onion. Cook for 30 minutes.
- Add the pepper soup spice, red chili flakes, powdered ginger, the remaining grated onion, and crayfish. Leave it to cook for another 10 minutes.
- Stir in the uziza leaves and let them simmer for another 5 minutes. Serve hot with yam, rice, bread, or whatever you prefer.
Notes:
- Packaged pepper soup seasoning mix/spice, usually imported from Nigeria, may be found in African grocery stores. The traditional spices used in pepper soup are little known outside of Africa.
- Expatriate Nigerians make a substitute pepper soup seasoning mix from allspice, anise pepper, anise seeds, cloves, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, dried ginger, fennel seeds, and tamarind pulp
- You can substitute the powdered ginger powder for fresh ginger if you prefer.
- The amount of peppers you add to the pepper soup depends on your heat tolerance, so feel free to increase or reduce the number of peppers you use.
- You can substitute uziza leaves or bitter leaves with parsley, or mint; be sure to wash and drain bitter leaves if you use them.
- I like to cut the goat meat into cutlets because it cooks faster, and they are ready-to-ea bite-sized pieces. If you prefer bigger chunks of meat in your pepper soup, please go with it, but it might need to cook for longer.
- To avoid chunks of onions in your pepper soup, it’s a good idea to either mince the onion or grate the onion on the smaller hole on the grater.
