🇬🇭 Ghana · Greater Accra (Ga-Dangme) and the Akan
Light soup
A thin, spicy Ghanaian soup of tomato, onion, ginger and chilli broth, with goat, chicken, beef or fish (originally the seafood soup of Accra's coastal fishermen), served with fufu, banku, rice or boiled yam.
Origin and history
Light soup, in Twi nkrakra and in Ga toolo wonu, is a staple of Ghanaian home cooking among the Akan and the Ga-Dangme of Greater Accra. It is thought to have begun as the seafood soup of Accra's coastal fishermen; its name refers to the thin, runny broth as opposed to the thicker palm nut or groundnut soups.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 5 servings
- Total time
- 1 h 45 min
- Hands-on
- 35 min
Ingredients
- 700 g1.5 lb goat meat on the bone, cut in chunks; chicken pieces, beef or fish also work
- 6 (about 700 g)6 (about 1.5 lb) ripe tomatoes, divided in two halves of 3
- 2 onions, divided, one for the paste and one cut in wedges
- 30 g1 oz fresh ginger, peeled
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled
- 1 hot pepper (kpakpo shito or scotch bonnet), to taste; scotch bonnet is much hotter
- 2 small garden eggs (small African eggplants), or 1 small aubergine, quartered
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1.2 litres5 cups water, plus more if needed
- salt, to taste
Method
-
1. Blend the ginger, garlic, hot pepper, one onion, three of the tomatoes and a good pinch of salt into a rough paste.
-
2. Coat the goat with about half of the paste and leave it for 15 minutes, or overnight in the refrigerator for a stronger flavour.
-
3. Put the meat and its marinade in a pot over medium-low heat, cover, and let it steam in its own juices for 10 to 15 minutes.
-
4. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 5 minutes, then add the water, bring to a boil and simmer, partly covered, for 45 to 60 minutes until the goat is nearly tender. Goat can take longer; add water as needed.
-
5. Add the remaining three tomatoes quartered, the onion wedges, the garden eggs and the rest of the paste, and cook gently for 20 to 30 minutes, until the vegetables are very soft.
-
6. Lift out the onions, tomatoes and garden eggs with a slotted spoon, blend them smooth and stir the purée back in. Simmer for 10 minutes more.
-
7. Taste for salt and heat. The soup should be thin and bright red-orange with a little oil on top, not thick like a stew.
Notes
- The usual accompaniment is fufu (pounded cassava and plantain, or yam), served in a separate mound or placed in the bowl with the soup poured around it. Banku, kenkey, boiled rice and boiled yam are equally common.
- Fish is the original form: along the Accra coast the soup is made with fresh or smoked fish and cooked much more briefly (20 to 30 minutes), with no long simmer. Chicken, beef and goat are the inland and household versions. All are the same soup; the thin tomato, ginger and pepper broth is what defines it.
- Garden eggs are optional and give a slight bitterness; if you cannot find them, a small aubergine is the closest substitute. Kpakpo shito is a mild fruity Ghanaian pepper; a small piece of scotch bonnet (a quarter, seeds removed) or half a red jalapeno gives a similar effect with different heat.
- Some cooks sieve the blended vegetables so the soup stays smooth; others leave a little texture.
- The soup keeps well for 3 days in the refrigerator and tastes better the next day. Reheat gently.
Adapted from Traditional Ghanaian recipes: Goat light soup, Time Out Accra, Light soup, Afrifood Network, and How to prepare light soup with fish, Yen.com.gh.
At the festivals
No festival we list has printed it on a menu yet.