Egusi Stew

Welcome to your new favorite stew! Egusi Stew!! This stew is luscious, full of flavor and absolutely to die for. We love having it with steamed rice or boiled plantains. So tasty!

Egusi, a West and Central African Ingredient

If you are not familiar with the word, Egusi is a seed that is basically the same as pumpkin seeds, but in a white variety. It is also known as melon seeds.

Egusi is widely enjoyed in Central African and West African Countries. It is mostly used to make a variety of soups or sauces. Perhaps the most common way egusi is used is to make Egusi Soup, a Nigerian soup made with ground melon seeds, ground crayfish, leafy greens, red palm oil and sometimes locust beans.

In Cameroon, one popular Egusi delicacy is this delight called Egusi Pudding. Egusi is also used to cook vegetables or added to okra soup and ogbono soup.

We always love having egusi at home. We mean, we just feel this sense of security when there is some egusi lying in our cupboard because of the varied ways we can use it. The dimension of taste it brings to food is unbeatable! Egusi for president!

Stew Made With Egusi

This is not your average egusi soup. Let’s talk about this egusi stew for a moment. It is:

• Luscious
• Garlicky
• High in nutrients (egusi is high in protein!)
• Easy to make
• Savory
• Luscious (did we say this already?)

Serve your egusi sauce over boiled rice for a delightful meal. Actually, this goes well with plantains, too: boiled or fried. And it is great with boiled yams too! It is just an all-round really good stew!

Egusi stew served with rice

We used beef in this egusi stew recipe, but you could make egusi stew with chicken, egusi stew with fish or even egusi stew with turkey. The world is your oyster, baby!

How it comes together

Subscribe

• Yield: 8 servings
• Prep: 15 minutes
• Cook: 20 minutes
• Total: 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups ground egusi
• 6 large tomatoes – chopped
• 1 medium onion – chopped
• 1-2 stems green onions – chopped
• 5 cloves garlic – peeled
• 1 inch ginger – peeled
• 1 habanero pepper (optional)
• 2 cubes Maggi (4g per cube)
• 1 cup oil
• 1/2 pound beef – cut into pieces and boiled with salt, also reserve the beef stock for use in this recipe
• 1 teaspoon salt – adjust as needed

Method

1. Blend together garlic, ginger and half of the green onions then set aside.
2. Pour oil into a pot and heat on high for about 4 minutes.
3. Add in chopped onions and let it saute for 3 minutes until translucent. Be sure to stir from time to time.
4. Add in chopped tomatoes and let it cook until the tomato shrinks and starts sticking to the bottom of the pot.
5. Add in ground spices (garlic, ginger and onions) then stir for about 2 minutes. This brings out the flavor of the spices.
6. Add in ground egusi (with no added water) and mix well. Keep mixing for about 5 minutes (some egusi will stick to the bottom of the pot – that’s okay!)
7. Add in beef with stock. Then add in more water (we added about 1 cup) to get the desired consistency. We always make our stew a little lighter than we would want it at this point because as it simmers, a little of the water dries up. Add salt, seasoning cubes and habanero pepper (gorund or whole according to preference – we normally add it whole with stem on so the heat doesn’t get to every part of the food.)
8. Add in green onions, stir well and turn off the heat.
9. Enjoy with boiled rice, plantains or any starchy side of choice.