Ghanaian Vegan Palmnut Soup. Abenkwan

This is a vegan version of one the most cherished Ghanaian soups.

Most of our Ghanaian foods are meats based but the ingredients used are usually also very healthy and protein rich so a simple elimination of meat/chicken/fish makes it the perfect vegan option.

For this recipe, of course no meat used, I added some eggplant to help thicken the soup and some greens to provide necessary protein.

Serve with extra boiled black eyed peas for another dose of healthy protein and minerals. 

Easy and delicious recipe to try.

All you need

100g palmnut batter or home made batter from boiled and pounded palmnuts
2 big size onions
1 inch size fresh ginger
1-3 scotch bonnet pepper(optional)
1 big size aubergine/eggplant/garden eggs
1 vegetable stock cube (I used fondue)
500g of green leaves (collard leaves, spinach leaves, nkontomire leaves ie cocoyam leaves)
Salt to taste.

How to make it

Prepare soup by firstly mixing the palmnut batter or sauce with some warm water. Water should be just about the amount of soup you would want, about 1.5 litre should do for the 100g of palmnut sauce.

Next blend 1 onion together with ginger and peppers.

Then slice up the aubergine into big chunks and place in a sizeable saucepan with the other left onion(whole...don't slice).

Add about 1/2 cup of water and vegetable stock cube/fondue. Cover and let it boil over medium heat for about 3 minutes.

Next pour onion/ginger/peppers mixture over the aubergine. Stir, cover and boil for 5 minutes. 

Then add in palmnut sauce. If using self made palmnut sauce, carefully sieve off the husk after pounding preferably twice to get a smooth sauce.

Cover and allow to boil for 20 minutes. Remove cover check for salt and continue to cook for 20 minutes or till cooked.

Roughly chop or rip up the green leaves and add to the soup. At this stage soup should be almost ready.

To know when soup is ready, you can do my onion test. If the whole onion added is cooked soft so that it falls apart easily, soup is ready. Or when palm oil is formed up on the surface of the soup with less foamy bubbles then also soup is ready.

Serve with omotuo ie rice balls(boiled rice rolled into balls ) with some boiled blackeye peas and you won't regret it.

Note. I used no tomatoes because we're not using meat. This is to help balance the sweetness of the soup. Palmnut soup can be naturally sweet.

Enjoy. #eduanipa