This recipe is a very flavorful vegan Ghana style melon seed soup, also known as wrewre soup. Wrewre soup is a special soup made for the holiday season and special occasions.
What is Wrewre?
The ancestors of watermelon today were native to Africa. However, African melons were sold in a variety of shapes and sizes. These melons are cultivated primarily for seeds and form a very important ingredient in the dishes that are popular in the region. Agushie or Egusi are what most people know — flat, round white melon seeds. Melon seeds, like many seeds, offer many nutrients and benefits, including plant-based proteins and fatty acids. For these reasons, I regularly incorporate them into my diet. You don’t have to keep reaching for pumpkin, chia or flax seeds when I can eat the ingredients I grew up with.
If you want to know more about melon seeds, my Patreon has a really nice post about this. You can subscribe to more exclusive content (click here).
However, this soup uses certain types of melon seeds. Different from Agushie.. They are smaller, thinner and look like sunflower seeds. These melon seeds are specially used for this soup and require a little more care and care to pull it out. But the final product is an amazing, incredibly fragrant soup.
Things necessary
Wrewre: I get these at stores in Africa. It’s technically a seed, so if you’re allergic to nuts, it’s okay, but if you’re allergic to seeds, be careful. Unfortunately, this is a unique ingredient that I can’t offer a replacement. This is only available in stores in West Africa.
mushroom: I use a mixture of dried shiitake mushrooms, tea tree, and wood ear mushrooms. I also use fresh mushrooms because I like the difference in texture.I use a mixture of oyster mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms.
Aromatics: Without tomatoes, onions, ginger and scotch bonnet peppers, Ghana’s soup wouldn’t be complete.These serve as the base of the soup
spices: Soup seasonings are very basic. What I used was better than bouillon and a small amount of curry powder. Miso also works very well.
How to make Wrewre soup
material
- 1.5 cup seed
- 2 tomatoes
- 1 onion
- 1 ginger
- 2 dry mushrooms (using tea tree and shiitake mushrooms)
- 1 block of extra hard tofu
- 1 teaspoon more than bouillon paste (or any bouillon cube, or even miso)
- 1 teaspoon of curry powder
Instructions
1. In a non-stick pan, roast until the roasted seeds start popping out. It is easy to get burned, so keep an eye on it and stir.
2. When you start hearing the popping sound, take the heat seeds and transfer to a blender.
3. Blend the seeds with 4 cups of water and return the milk to the pot. Mix the remaining rice husks with 3 cups of water and repeat the straining process.
4. Bring the milk to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Pre-cook to prevent the milk from coagulating.
5. After 20 minutes, add dried mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, scotch bonnet pepper and 2 more cups of water.
6. Bring everything to a boil until the tomatoes start to peel.
7. Remove tomatoes, onions and scotch bonnet peppers and mix with ginger and 2 cups of water.
8. Put the blended mixture in a pan and bring everything to a boil.The remaining chaff can be used as a sauce as it is
9. Bring everything to a boil for about 10 minutes, then add the bouillon cubes and curry powder.
10. Boil the soup for another 15 minutes, then add the fresh mushrooms.
11. Bring the broth to a boil until you see oil on the top. They look like red stripes.
12. Serve with rice balls or fufu.
