Achu Soup (Achu soup)
Overview
Achu soup, often called yellow soup, is a bright yellow-orange soup from the grasslands of north-west Cameroon. Beef, cow skin and tripe are boiled with spices such as country onion, njangsa, white pepper and a special mix called achu spice. Then palm oil is whisked hard with a little dissolved limestone, known as kanwa, until it turns into a thick, creamy, yellow emulsion, and the hot spiced stock is beaten into it. The soup is served beside achu, a smooth paste of pounded cocoyam, which is shaped into a bowl with a hollow in the middle to hold the soup. It is usually eaten with the fingers.
History
Achu is the festive dish of the Bamenda grasslands, especially among the Bafut, Kom and Nso peoples, and it is served at weddings, funerals and traditional ceremonies. Cooking it is hard work, because the cocoyams must be pounded for a long time. It is now eaten across Cameroon and by Cameroonians abroad, and restaurants in Yaoundé and Douala serve it on weekends.
Main ingredients
Palm oil, limestone (kanwa) water, cow skin and tripe, beef, country onion and njangsa, pepper. The soup is built on beef stock and is usually served hot. Diet: contains meat; usually gluten-free.
Explore: Beef soups · Tripe and offal soups
Recipe
Method
- 11 h
Boil the meats with salt for 1 hour until tender, keeping the stock.
- 2
Toast and grind the spices and add them to the stock with the pepper.
- 3
Whisk the palm oil with the kanwa water until it turns yellow and creamy.
- 4
Slowly whisk in the hot spiced stock until the soup is smooth and thick.
- 5
Add the meats and serve with pounded cocoyam.
- ✓
Serve. About 2 h from start to bowl.
Sources
Description, history and recipe written by SoupWiki and checked against the sources above. Calories and times are rough estimates.
