I always do not seem like someone who would do well in the kitchen or slightly know how to cook. When I say I can cook, many people do not always believe me, and the truth is that if I am around people, I lose interest in cooking or it is at that moment that I lose the ability to cook. I only know how to cook my own food, not because it tastes bad but because it is during the time when I have no one around to cook for me and I have no choice but to cook what I would eat myself.

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After I cook my food, and my friends come around to taste my food, they are always surprised at how good it tastes and some would not believe I actually made the food myself. 

Today, I actually made egusi soup, and I will be writing about how I did it. Here is the food on my table...

This is Egusi soup, it is an African soup that is commonly prepared among the Yoruba people. It has a very delicious taste and is also my favorite type of soup. The following are the ingredients I used.

1. Palmoil

2. Egusi 

3. tomatoes and pepper

4. Crayfish and locust beans

5. pumpkin leaf, also known as ugwu leaf in my country.

6. Fish

So I went out to get some tomatoes and pepper. I bought a lot so that I can keep some to make stew for another time. Above is the grater I used to grate the tomatoes and peppers. Below is the result. 

After grinding my tomatoes, I brought out my fish and I cut it to pieces, then removed the bones in it.

Thereafter, I brought out my locust beans to wash and got my egusi soaked in water. The picture on the left is of locust beans, while the one on the right below is of egusi.

After washing my locus beans, I placed in it the plate where I kept my grated tomatoes and pepper.  Then I went on to put the pot of fire, then poured 4 spoons of palm oil into the pot, after that, I sliced in onions to fry with the palm oil, adding a cube of seasoning into it. Then poured my pepper and tomatoes into the pot.

After my tomatoes and onions had fried very well for a bit with the Palm oil, I went on adding my Egusi. It was really nice! Normally, I would have fried my fish with tomatoes and pepper but I had forgotten I bought fish for the soup 😅. It was until later that I figured I had not yet added fish to the pot.

After adding the egusi, I added salt and two cubes of seasoning to the soup. Then I let the Egusi cook on low heat while I steer it to keep it from burning. 

When I saw the egusi had cooked well, it was time to fetch my pumpkin (Ugwu) leaves that I had soaked in water. So it is selfie time!

_{_This guy is a very fine husband material, 1000 yards._}

PS: This image below is taken from the last time I cooked Egusi, which is the time before now.  I forgot to take a picture of my soaked pumpkin leaves so I decided to use these images. 

Then I proceeded to add the leaves to the Egusi soup. After adding the leaves, I then stirred the soup. I let the leaves cook very well until they were very soft before my cooking was done.

It was at the end that it dawned on me that I had not added my fish to the soup.  I was like FUCK UP...  I was glad that I bought smoked fish, which means there would not be a problem if I added it immediately to the soup.

I added the fish that I had pieced, and then I added a little amount of curry into the soup and let it cook for 5 to 10 minutes before I was done.

I prefer eating this type of meal with fufu, but it happened that there is no way I could get fufu nearby so I decided to make Eba (baked garri), which I did not take pictures of. I ate this meal with Eba for about an hour after I cooked it.  Here are the pictures I took before starting to eat my meal.

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HOW MUCH DID IT COST ME TO MAKE THIS MEAL

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Before making this meal, I was not sure what to eat. I was tired of eating rice and I didn't want to cook beans, then I thought cooking Egusi soap would not be a bad idea. I already had Egusi with me, a measurement of 1 cup, which I bought for #400 naira, about $0.54.

The smoked fish that I bought was gotten for #500 naira which is about $0.67 for one. It feels expensive to me; I don't know how much they sell it for in your country. If you think it is expensive, please tell me.

For the palm oil, I bought a bottle of palm oil for #1200 about $1.62. I like palm oil a lot, and I don't think buying it in bottles would pay for itself. Soon I would ask for the price of 5 liters of palm oil which I would plan to buy and start keeping at home.

The tomatoes and pepper that I got were also gotten for #500 naira which is $0.67. I bought this much because I planned to keep some to make stew another day. 

The crayfish and locust beans was gotten for 50 naira each, $0.68. I added two crayfish and used one wrap of locust beans which cost a total of $0.2, which is exactly #150 naira.

Lastly, the pumpkin leaves, which I got for the price of #200 naira, which is $0.27, When I got them they were still in branches but the people I bought it from helped me to slice the leaves. 

I spent a total of #2950, which is about $4, to make this meal.

In your country, is having to cook something like this for $4 worth it? What do you think?

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 𝙰𝙱𝙾𝚄𝚃 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙰𝚄𝚃𝙷𝙾𝚁

_{Starstrings01, also known as Giftedhands, attends the Federal University of Agriculture in Abeokuta to study mechatronics engineering. He is a lover of the hive, a guitarist from Nigeria, and a student.   His ambition on Hive is to be more than just an ordinary blogger; he wants to be someone with a purpose. That's why he started the newbies initiative @newbies-hive to help guide and support newbies. Please follow the @newbies-hive curation trail by clicking [here](https://hive.vote/dash.php?trail=newbies-hive&i=1). He tries to juggle education with being active on the chain, but his love and passion for Hive keep him on track..}

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All images are mine except where indicated otherwise
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