In this recipe, I will be sharing an incredibly flavourful vegan Palm Nut soup. Palm-nut soup/stew is consumed throughout West Africa and goes by various names; Banga Soup, Abenkwan, Ofe Akwu. They do have some similarities in preparation but today we will be making it Ghanaian style. This recipe is also a celebration of amazing and unique West African Ingredients.

The Oil Palm

Before we get into the recipe, I will love to dive into the oil Palm and its significance in West African Food. I know palm oil is a hotly contested topic, so I think it is important for me to talk about why we consume it in West Africa.

The oil palm is indigenous to Western and Central Africa. The tree serves as an important part of our ecosystem and can be found across the coastal forest and inland. The oil palm serves many purposes in our everyday lives; we use the branches are used for brooms and housing; the sap for local alcohol; and, the fruit for oil, African black soap, and food.

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Oil Palm
Palm Fruit

The fruit consists of the red flesh and the kernel. The red flesh is used for soups as well as a flavourful red oil. The red oil is not only an essential ingredient in many stews but is also used to treat mild poisoning. The kernel is not used to the same extent but the oil is extracted for frying or traditional soap making.

Is Consuming Palm Oil Bad?

Palm oil consumption and production in West Africa has nothing to do with the problem of palm oil production in South East Asia. The issue in South East Asia is that of colonialism, whereby oil palm seedlings were taken from Africa to South East Asia. As a plant that is naturally part of our ecosystem, it’s been part of our culinary history for centuries. It is not grown in plantation-style to the extent it is in South East Asia and is usually processed artisanally. West Africans in the diaspora source their palm oil from West African stores as these are imported straight from West Africa. These are ethical and local sources.

If you want to read more about palm oil in the African context, please check out this post.

What Will You Need to Make Vegan Ghanaian Palm Nut Soup

  • Mushrooms: They have a nice meat flavour, bring great texture and make a really fragrant soup base. I usually prefer using a mixture of dried and fresh mushrooms because dried can be boiled for a long time to help build flavour and the fresh mushrooms are added at the end for textural variety.
  • Aromatics: Onions, Tomatoes, Ginger and Scotch Bonnet pepper are essential to any Ghanaian soup REGARDLESS of whether it has meat in it or not. You cannot skip any of these ingredients, except the scotch bonnet pepper because its just spicy and if you can’t handle spice, it is not for you.
  • Veggie Broth: I use the better than bouillon no beef broth base, and its honestly the most important seasoning in my kitchen. It really adds a rich broth flavour and I usually use this when hydrating my dried mushrooms as a starting base. For added flavour I also use an organic salt free veggie broth cube.
  • Palm Cream: the most essential ingredient. I get my palm cream from a local West African store near me. For more info and shopping african ingredients, please check out my FAQ section.
palm cream
prekese/aidan fruit

  • Prekese: Also known as aidan fruit is a spice and medicial fruit that grows across West Africa. It imparts a really awesome flavour to the dish that cannot be replicated. Plus, it adds some nutrient and medicinal properties.
  • Spices: the only other spice I include in this recipe is grains of selim, which adds a nice woody and aromatic smell to this dish. If you want to learn more about grains of selim, please check out this post about important Ghanaian spices.
  • Miso: Now this is completely optional. I choose to use miso instead of salt if I need to adjust the salt content because it has a really good depth of flavour.

How to Make Vegan Ghanaian Palm Nut Soup

  1. Steam the Mushrooms and Aromatics: I tend to start cooking with dry mushrooms because they can be boiled for ours without losing texture and flavour. Steaming the aromatics cooks them down and makes it easier to blend.
  2. Blend aromatics
  3. Dilute the palm fruit: you can dissolve the palm fruit in hot water to get the cooking process started.
  4. Season Soup: As the palm fruit is boiling along, you can layer your seasoning as well as fresh mushrooms to impart a really nice flavour.

What can I serve with this soup?

You can serve it with omutuo, fufu, banku or any grain of choice.

Palm Nut Soup with Fufu
Palm Nut Soup with Omutuo

Make sure to check these Ghanaian soups

If you tried this recipe, please leave a comment below. Make sure to also tag me on social media (@eatwithafia on Instagram and Tik Tok)

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Course Soup
Cuisine Ghanaian
Keyword african ingredients, palm nut
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Servings 6 servings

Ingredients

  • 2 cups dried mushrooms I use a mix of shiitake, oyster and wood ear
  • 1 packet of assorted mushrooms king oyster mushrooms, shiitake and enooki
  • 2 tbsp better than bouillon no beef vegetable broth use any bouillon cube of choice
  • 1.5 litres of room temperature water
  • .5 litre hot water
  • 3 tomatoes
  • 1 medium onion cut in half
  • 1 scotch bonnet pepper
  • 1 large thumb of ginger
  • 2/3 cups of palm nut cream
  • 1 prekese/aidan fruit
  • 4 pieces of grains of selim
  • 1 tbsp of miso optional
  • 5 whole okra optional

Instructions

  • In a pot, add the dry mushrooms, the better than bouillon paste, the bouillon cube and 4 cups of water and bring to a boil at medium heat
  • Once the mixture has boiled, add in the tomatoes, the onion and the scotch bonnet pepper and ginger. Let this boil till the skins start to peel off the tomato
  • Next, remove the tomato, onion and scotch bonnet pepper and blend with 2 cups of water
  • After blending, strain the mixture into the pot of mushrooms. Then bring everything to a rolling boil
  • Once it gets to a boil, mix your palm cream with the hot water and pour it into the soup
  • If you have a gas stove, you can quickly roast the prekese with an open flame. If not, you can use matches or a lighter to lightly roast it (please watch the video). Once roasted, add the prekese to the soup.
  • Add in your grains of selim and miso
  • Once it boils, reduce the heat to medium-low and let it simmer for at least 45 minutes till it is nice and thick.
  • There will be red palm oil that settles to the top quite early, if you want to skim some off the surface and reserve it, you are more than welcome to do so.
  • After 45 minutes, add in your fresh mushrooms and let them simmer for another 10 minutes. For a little extraness you can add in a few whole okra (please do not cut into these otherwise it will be slimy) and let it cook with the mushrooms.
  • At this point, your soup is ready.
  • You can serve the soup with rice, fufu, or any grain of choice.

Notes

The soup actually does not need to be refrigerated. You can keep it on the stove and reheat it every single day before you serve it.