Ewedu Soup
Overview
Ewedu is a Yoruba soup made from jute leaves, cooked and beaten until it becomes smooth and slippery, and it is almost never eaten alone. The leaf is Corchorus olitorius, jute mallow, known as ewedu in Yoruba and as molokhia across North Africa and the Levant, where it is cooked quite differently. It has a mucilaginous quality, the same draw that okra has, and the Yoruba preparation leans into it rather than fighting it. The leaves are cooked briefly and then worked with a broom-like whisk called an ijabe until the texture turns uniformly smooth. Its role is as one part of a set. Ewedu is served with gbegiri, the bean soup, and with a red stew, over amala, the combination Yoruba people call abula. Eaten on its own it is thin and mild; eaten as intended, it is the element that makes the whole plate slide. Finding the leaves outside Nigeria is the main obstacle, as the source notes bluntly. Frozen ewedu is sold in African grocers and works well.
AFN Heritage Note
Ewedu is made from Corchorus olitorius, jute mallow, known as molokhia across North Africa and the Levant where it is prepared differently. In Yoruba cooking it is beaten smooth with an ijabe whisk and served as part of abula alongside gbegiri and stew over amala.
Ingredients
Dietary tags are provided by contributors as a guide, not verified by AFN, and they depend on the products you buy. If you have a serious allergy, check every ingredient yourself. Cooking, allergies and your own judgement
Directions
- 1
Directions
- 2
Nicely pick just the leaves (no stem allowed), then go ahead and wash properly with a lot of water to remove any sand left on it.
- 3
Pour 1.5 cups of water to a cooking pot and heat to boiling point, add the washed ewedu leaves, soak the half teaspoon of potash in half cup of water and filter into the pot (to soften the leaves), cook for 7-10 minutes.
- 4
Then use the cooking broom to mash (more like pound) continuously inside the pot, this will turn the leaves to tiny bits after mashing for about five minutes.
- 5
Alternatively, You can also transfer into a blender and pulse a couple of times, I think this way is easier and better.
- 6
That was how I made the soup above, couldn’t find the ewedu broom.Transfer back to the pot and add the ground crayfish, maggi, salt and pepper to taste.
- 7
Allow to simmer for just five minutes and you are done with making ewedu soup.
Africook’s Notes
- Cook the leaves briefly. Long cooking dulls the colour and kills the draw that the soup depends on.
- Use an ijabe if you can get one. A blender over-processes it and a whisk struggles.
- Add locust bean or crayfish for depth, on its own ewedu is very mild.
- Do not add thickener. The slipperiness is the point of the dish, not a fault to correct.
Questions cooks ask
What are ewedu leaves?
They are jute mallow, Corchorus olitorius, the same plant known as molokhia in Egypt and across the Levant, where it is made into a quite different soup. In Yoruba cooking it is called ewedu. Fresh leaves are hard to find outside Nigeria, but frozen ewedu is widely sold in African grocers and works perfectly well.
Is ewedu eaten on its own?
Rarely. It is normally served as part of abula, ewedu alongside gbegiri, the bean soup, and a red stew, all over amala. On its own it is thin and mild; the combination is what it is designed for. Some people do eat it with just stew, but the full set is the traditional form.
Why is it slippery?
Jute leaves are mucilaginous, in the same way okra is. That texture is the defining characteristic of the dish and it is deliberately encouraged by beating the cooked leaves smooth. If you find it unpleasant, ewedu is probably not the soup for you, there is no way to make it without.
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