🇨🇲 Cameroon · North-West Region, Cameroon (Bamenda and Bafut area)
Achu soup (yellow soup)Cameroonian yellow soup
A Cameroonian soup of palm oil emulsified with limestone (kanwa) into a yellow broth with meat or fish and spices, eaten with achu, pounded cocoyam (taro).
Origin and history
Achu soup, also called yellow soup, belongs to the grassfields of North-West Cameroon (the Bamenda and Bafut area) and is also cooked in the West and South-West regions. Its yellow colour comes from palm oil emulsified with kanwa limestone. It is traditionally served with pounded cocoyam and eaten by hand.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 5 servings
- Total time
- 2 h 15 min
- Hands-on
- 50 min
Ingredients
- 500 g1.1 lb beef shank or stewing beef, cut in large chunks
- 300 g10.5 oz beef tripe, well cleaned, cut in strips; optional but traditional
- 1 small onion, sliced
- 1 whole habanero or scotch bonnet pepper, left intact so the heat stays gentle
- 1.2 kg2.6 lb taro (cocoyam, macabo), the starchy corms, not the small eddoes
- 120 ml1/2 cup red palm oil, unrefined, gently warmed
- 5 g1 tsp kanwa (food-grade edible limestone potash), ground to a powder
- 120 ml1/2 cup warm water, to dissolve the kanwa
- 2 tbsp achu or yellow-soup spice mix, ground; the Cameroonian blend usually built on njansang and country pepper
- 2 cubes bouillon cubes, optional
- salt, to taste
Method
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1. Put the beef, tripe, sliced onion, whole pepper and a good pinch of salt in a large pot, cover with about 1.5 litres (6 cups) of water and bring to a boil.
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2. Reduce to a steady simmer and cook for 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes, until the tripe is tender when pinched, skimming any foam. Lift out the meat and tripe and keep the stock, you need about 750 ml (3 cups).
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3. Meanwhile, peel the taro, cut it in large chunks and boil it in plenty of water for 40 to 50 minutes, until a knife slides in with no resistance. Drain and keep it hot.
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4. Stir the ground kanwa into the warm water, leave it for a few minutes to settle, then pour off the cloudy liquid and discard the grit at the bottom.
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5. Warm the palm oil in a wide bowl or pan over very low heat until it is just liquid and no more than lukewarm, 40 to 50 °C (105 to 120 °F). Hot oil will break the emulsion.
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6. Pour the kanwa water into the oil a spoonful at a time, whisking or stirring steadily in one direction. The mixture turns pale yellow and thickens into a creamy paste.
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7. Stir the spice mix into 100 ml of warm stock, then fold it into the yellow paste with the crumbled bouillon cubes.
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8. Gradually whisk in the rest of the warm stock until you have a smooth, loose yellow soup. Add the meat and tripe, warm through without boiling, and adjust the salt.
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9. Pound the hot taro in a mortar, or mash it with a heavy wooden spoon or a stand-mixer paddle, for 5 to 10 minutes, until it is completely smooth, stretchy and free of lumps. Sprinkle in a few drops of hot water only if it is stiff.
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10. Shape the pounded taro into a mound on each plate, press a well into the centre, and ladle in the soup and meat. Eat with the fingers, pinching off bites of achu and dipping them in the soup.
Notes
- The usual accompaniment is the achu itself: pounded cocoyam (taro, macabo). The soup is not really eaten without it, and the taro must be pounded while hot, because it stiffens and goes lumpy as it cools.
- Kanwa (also called kaun or potash) is the limestone-type salt that turns palm oil into a yellow emulsion. Some cooks prefer nikki, a lye made from burnt plantain peels, instead. If you cannot find either, a pinch (about 1/4 tsp) of baking soda stirred into the warm water gives a similar yellow emulsion; it is a shortcut, and the soup will taste a little less earthy and mineral.
- Achu spice mix is hard to find outside Cameroon. Cameroonian grocers and online African shops sell it, and njansang (ndjansang) can be bought alone. A rough stand-in for 2 tbsp is 1 tsp ground white pepper, 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg, 1/2 tsp ground ginger and 1/2 tsp ground dried chilli with 1 tbsp ground toasted sesame seeds; the flavour will be different but in the right direction.
- If you cannot find taro, yam or green plantain boiled and pounded the same way is the nearest texture, but the result is not achu. Ordinary potatoes do not pound into a stretchy dough.
- Beef alone also works; tripe and cow skin (ponmo) are the classic additions. Smoked or fresh fish is another traditional protein for yellow soup.
- Make the stock and boil the meat a day ahead. Mix the yellow emulsion just before serving and reheat it very gently; boiling can split it.
Adapted from Achu Soup (Yellow Soup) & Achu, African Bites, Achu Soup (Yellow Soup), Afrifood Network, and Le taro pilé et sa sauce jaune, camer.be (La recette du dimanche).
At the festivals
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