Potato pepper soup is really going to taste nice, I haven’t tried this before and I really want to try this meal. Potato and pepper soup is a great combination. It is a simple meal to prepare, you only have to use the right ingredients and follow the steps below. We are using fish for this potato pepper soup you can use any protein of your choice.
Ingredients for Potato Pepper soup
These are the ingredients for making potato pepper soup.
- 5 medium Irish Potatoes
- 300g fresh fish (head and tail only)
- 10 medium mushrooms
- 1 red onion
- 2 habanero peppers
- 1 teaspoon ground ehu (Calabash Nutmeg)
- 1 big stock cube
- Black pepper (tiny quantity as seen in the video)
- 5 scent leaves
- 3 bay leaves (optional)
- Salt (to taste)
- Water
Notes on the ingredients
It is important you understand this before making your potato pepper soup.
- You can vary the quantities of the ingredients to your liking.
- I used gilthead sea bream fish (Dorada in Spanish) in the video below but you can use tilapia, croaker fish or cat fish. I find that mackerel does not go well with this recipe.
- Irish Potato is informally known as spud. You may also use yam, sweet potatoes but I prefer Irish potatoes for this meal.
- Mushroom is Ero/Elo/Eru (Igbo), Oru (Igala), Udib/Annang (Efik/Ibibio), Leman Kwado or Rumfar Kwado or Hular Kare (Hausa), Olu (Yoruba), Itu/Utun (Edo/Delta), Ikhowe (IsiZulu) etc. You can buy it from any big supermarket such as Shoprite and Spar.
- Ehu (Calabash Nutmeg) is a very traditional ingredient that is difficult to find outside Nigeria. If you can’t buy it where you live, skip it and add more black pepper. Ordinary nutmeg is not an alternative to this because they are not similar in any way. If you have friends or family in Nigeria, they will be able to buy ehu seeds and send to you, a small quantity goes a long way.
- The 2 habanero peppers set our mouths on fire so adjust this to your taste.
- If you do not have scent leaves, use parsley. Some people swear by mint leaves as scent leaves alternative but it’s a no from me.
- The bay leaves did not make any difference so you can skip it. I only added it as a test.
Before you cook the Potato Peppersoup
This section of this post is very important, you must understand this before making your potato pepper soup.
- Peel the Irish Potatoes, rinse and cut into medium cubes.
- Cut the fish head and tail into sizeable chunks.
- Cut the habanero pepper into medium pieces.
- Cut each mushroom into 2 parts.
- Grind the ehu.
- Cut the onion into into thin slices along the bulb. This is so that when they heat up, they will add body to the pepper soup.
- Cut the scent leaves into tiny pieces.
How to cook your potato and fish pepper soup
- Pour a small quantity of water into a clean pot and set it on the stove (medium heat). The water should just cover the bottom of the pot.
- Add the ground ehu, black pepper, and stock cube (crushed).
- Stir and gently place the pieces of fish in the pot. Once the bottom heats up, turn the fish around so that all sides will get some heating and become tough.
- When the fish is well heated all over, remove them from the pot and add the potatoes.
- Add water to cover the potatoes, add the bay leaves and start cooking on high heat till the potatoes are cooked but not soft.
- Add the mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the fish (gently), onions, and habanero pepper and cook for 2 minutes.
- Then take out the fish again and add salt to taste. Note: we add the fish, take it out, add, take it out, etc so that it does not scatter.
- Stir to make sure everything is incorporated and your potato pepper soup is ready.
