This vegetarian sauce claire is a meat-free alternative to the quintessential Ivorian soup.  This recipe is spicy, light, delicious and perfect for the cold winter season or summer months.

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What is Sauce Claire

Sauce claire is a light and spicy tomato soup made from a variety of animal proteins. It is called sauce claire because it doesn’t include rich ingredients like peanut/groundnuts or palm fruit. The soup is brothy, traditionally made with steamed animal protein or fish along with blended tomatoes, onions, (sometimes) garden eggs,  palm oil, tomato paste, akpi and seasoning. Akpi or djansang is an oil seed added to soups as a thickener or flavour additive. It has a nutty almost buttery flavour. You can read all about it in this post. The resulting broth is light yet rich in flavour. 

What Ingredients you will need to make Vegetarian Light soup

  • Mushrooms: Mushrooms serve as a meat substitute for the soup broth. Using a variety of mushrooms, both dry and fresh, add different textures and a depth of flavour.
  • Soup base: The soup include tomatoes, onions, hot pepper, and ginger as well akpi and tomato paste for a rich flavour. 
  • Seasoning: Kept this really vegetable bouillon paste and my homemade umami seasoning but any all purpose seasoning works well. Fish sauce (vegetarian option) can also add a nice umami flavour.
  • Palm Oil: adding palm oil will add more fat to the soup and more depth of flavour. 
  • Water: I am using water because my vegetable bouillon comes in a paste.

How to make Sauce Claire

  1. Steam the mushrooms in water along with the tomatoes, onion, scotch bonnet pepper, ginger some water and bring to a boil
  2. Add the palm oil and tomato paste and continue to cook until the skins peel off the tomatoes, takes about 10 minutes.
  3. While the aromatics are boiling, lightly dry toast the akpi in a pan over medium heat until fragrant. Takes about 3 minutes, then crush the akpi. 
  4. Add the boiled onion, tomatoes, ginger and scotch bonnet pepper to the blender with the akpi and blend with some water. Pour this mix into the soup along with some extra water and boil. Once boiling add the seasoning, mushrooms and tofu.
  5. Let the soup boil at medium-low heat simmering until all the foam disappears from the top. This should take about 20-30 minutes. The final soup should be brothy but not liquidy.

FAQ + Substitutions

  • Can I substitute the palm oil for another oil? Palm oil is quite common for Ivorian sauce claire but you can certainly make this soup without it. It will just become a Ghanaian light soup. 
  • Can I make this tofu free? Yes, you can. You can either omit the tofu completely or use another plant-based protein like tempeh. 
  • I am not a fan of mushrooms, do you have an alternative? As of now, I really do not since the base of the soup is made from mushrooms.
  • Can I use my own seasoning? You are welcome to use any seasoning of choice. Just make sure the soup is well seasoned to your liking

What Can I serve with this dish?

Soup + Rice
ivorian foufou
Ivorian foufou 
  • Rice! This is my go-to for light soup but it works with all types of fufu.
  • In Côte D’Ivoire, it is served with foufou (mashed ripe plantain ball) or foutou (mashed ripe plantain or yam with cassava turned into a ball)

Check out more of my favourite vegan-friendly West African soups

If you like this recipe, make sure to leave a comment below

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Course Soup
Cuisine Ivorian
Keyword african ingredients, soup
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Servings 5

Ingredients

  • 1 cup dried mushrooms I used shiitake and wood ear
  • 3 whole tomatoes
  • 1 whole onion
  • 2 scotch bonnet peppers you can deseed these or omit entirely for less spice
  • 1 thumb size ginger
  • 2 tbsp of red palm oil
  • 2 tbsp of tomato paste
  • 2 tbsp of better than bouillon paste
  • 1 tbsp all purpose seasoning of choice I used my umami seasoning (recipe linked above)
  • 1 packet of tofu cut into cubes
  • 1 packet of fresh oyster mushrooms
  • 1 atiedja or bay leaf optional
  • water

Instructions

  • Start by boiling the mushrooms, onion, tomato, ginger, scotch bonnet pepper with 1 litre of water at medium heat
  • When the pot comes to a boil, add the palm oil and tomato paste
  • Let this boil at medium heat till the skins start to peel off the tomatoes. While this is boiling, dry toast the akpi for a few minutes until fragrant. Grind the akpi into a powder.
  • Blend the tomatoes, ginger, onion, and akpi with 1 1/2 cups of water.
  • Pour the blended mixture into the pot, along with an additional 2 1/2 cups of water and bring to a boil.
  • Once the soup is boiling, add in the bouillon cube and seasoning. Taste the soup and add more salt if needed.
  • Let the soup boil for 20 minutes at medium heat. Add the fresh mushrooms and tofu and continue to boil for another 15 minutes until the foam on the top resides, some oil settles at the top of the soup and the soup thickens slightly but remains brothy. If it gets too thick, add 1/4 cup of water.
  • Serve with rice, foutou or foufou