PALM NUT SOUP (ABENKWAN) OR BANGA SOUP RECIPE

The sound of pounding Fufu and the aroma of a Goat or Chicken soup, will be served in almost every household during Christmas in Ghana.

Inspired by the above, I decided to video a Palm nut soup recipe, which is also known as Banga soup in Nigeria. 

I’ve used the tinned Palm nut cream for this recipe, since the traditional way of extracting the Palm nut cream can be labour intensive and time consuming.

Traditionally, one has to pick the individual fruits from the thorny casing, which can be painful. 

Luckily they’re already picked when they hit the markets. I remember in the late 80’s my Mum wasn’t impressed with the introduction of the ‘Agric’ type of Palm nut, which was twice the size of the local Palm fruits. They didn’t taste as great the local one. It turned out the smaller and darker looking Palm nut fruits were the Organic type and the larger ones had ‘fertilizers’ introduced to the soil , hence the name ‘Agric’.

The Palm nut fruits are then washed and boiled till they’re soft. One then uses a pestle and mortar to pound the fruits, to separate the thin, fibrous outer layer from the hard shells.

Hot water is then used to separate the juice of the fruit from the fibre and hard shell nuts.

The fibrous  part of the fruit is then dried and used to light fires. The nuts are cracked and one can enjoy it on its own or use it for Palm Kennel oil.

The leaves are also used to make brooms and the tree as firewood. 

Palm nut soup is cooked differently from each tribe in Ghana. This is due to the varied ingredients used in the soup. This recipe is inspired by Mum, since she only used Goat meat and smoked Tuna for the soup. I've used herring powder in place of smoked Tuna for this recipe. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

800g of Palmnut flesh

1.2 litres of water

1 large Tomato

I large Onion

1kg of cubed Lamb

1 teaspoonful of Cayenne Pepper

1 tablespoon of Herring powder

100g of Garden Eggs divided in two

100g of Okra 

10 individual Pettie Belle chillies ( Kpakpo Shito)

Salt to taste

GINGER BLEND

30g of Ginger

1 large Onion

1 tablespoon of Carom seeds

1 tablespoon of Aniseed

METHOD 

Watch how to prepare this below 

Don’t forget to subscribe, try the recipe, leave a comment with your feedback and share with your family and friends.

All photos, recipes and videos are by the owner of this blog.