Egusi Soup

Do you or your family make any special dishes for the holidays?

Spicy, warm soups are delightful for me.

Food is culture. Food is life, and I can go on dropping poetic lines about food. As a traditional person, I am a foodie who appreciates good food! I love traditional Igbo dishes like egusi, ede, ogbono, uha, and onugbu. Growing up, I learned to cook because I visit the kitchen often to keep my mom, aunties, and sister company or get extra pieces of food, haha.

Egusi soup is made of melon seeds native to Igbo land. The seeds are ground into a fine paste and then cooked with other ingredients. It is then served with gari, fufu, or akpu—all made from yams or cassava. During any festivity or holiday, this dish, alongside different soups and meals, is cooked.

An Igbo adage goes thus: Agadi nwanyi anaghi aka n’egwu omara agba—An older woman does not age on her dance steps. Although I haven’t been cooking for a while, I still remember most recipes, and I can do them with ease. Last summer, during fieldwork in Nigeria, I had some of these meals. Now, back in America, I’m fortunate to have a Nigerian restaurant in the next town that offers the egusi dish. 😋

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44 comments

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  4. We make pasta and garlic bread…a simple but old staple. Can’t ever go wrong with it!! If you could, please subscribe to our blog to stay up to date with organized, informative knowledge which can be applied to reality

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  10. This sounds like such an interesting dish. Honestly, I haven’t heard of any of the dishes mentioned in here. It’s cool to see such a cultural difference; I love how many diverse foods there are across the world

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