Pawpaw Soup (Pawpaw soup)
Overview
Pawpaw soup is a soup of the Tiv people of central Nigeria, made with unripe pawpaw, or papaya. Green pawpaws are peeled, sliced thinly and dried in the sun, so they keep for months. The dried flakes are soaked and cooked in a meat stock with beef, palm oil, pepper and ground dried crayfish, and ground egusi melon seeds are stirred in to thicken the soup and make it rich. The pawpaw softens into tender strips with a mild, slightly sweet flavour. Like many Nigerian soups, it is eaten with a swallow such as pounded yam or garri.
History
The Tiv people live mainly in Benue State in the Middle Belt of Nigeria, a farming region often called the food basket of the nation. Drying green pawpaw is a way to keep a plentiful fruit for the dry season, when fresh vegetables are hard to find. The soup is well known in Makurdi and Gboko and among Tiv families elsewhere in Nigeria.
Main ingredients
Dried green pawpaw, egusi, palm oil, beef, crayfish, pepper. The soup is built on meat stock and is usually served hot. Diet: contains meat; usually gluten-free.
Explore: Beef soups · Fish and seafood soups · More soups from Nigeria
Recipe
Method
- 130 min
Soak the dried pawpaw in warm water for 30 minutes and drain.
- 230 min
Cook the beef with the onion, salt and stock cubes in 1 l water for 30 minutes.
- 315 min
Add the palm oil, chillies, crayfish and pawpaw and cook for 15 minutes.
- 410 min
Mix the egusi with a little water to a paste and add it in spoonfuls, then simmer for 10 minutes.
- 5
Stir, season and serve with pounded yam.
- ✓
Serve. About 1h 20m from start to bowl.
Sources
Description, history and recipe written by SoupWiki and checked against the sources above. Calories and times are rough estimates.
