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Palm nut soup

MY PALM NUT SOUP or DEKU DESSI (BANGA SOUP)

Palm nut soup, also known in Togo ewe language as “Deku dessi” is a popular African soup. The soup is made from juice of a pounded palm nut fruit.   It varies per regions, culture, family, person and taste. My recipe video is available here.

How is the Palm nut liquid extracted?

 Originally the Palm nut Soup is from the juice extracted from a pounded cooked Palm nut fruits called Deku in ewe language. The palm nut fruits are first cooked until the meaty part is really tender. After that the whole fruit is then gently pounded in a special mortar to separate the flesh from the nut. When well pounded it release enough paste that will be use to make this palm nut soup.

The fibrous part left after straining is discarded or dried up for fire starter. Nuts can be cracked and eat as snacks or to produce Palm Kennel oil.  

Alternatives

Of course, it is not every day you have time for all those preliminary food prep. My mom tends to freeze the pulverized palm nut for later use when she needed it. Living in America I couldn’t find the fresh palm nut!

You can conveniently buy the palm nut paste in a can. When I tried the canned palm nut it upset my sensitive stomach. I wasn’t sure what was the added ingredients that the canned palm nut contains.  Altogether I stop using it until my cousin recently told me I can purchase the natural frozen one in an African market.

I did found it! It was just like my mom used to make it! Sure enough I did not have any adverse reaction after eating this. So definitely, I will recommend the frozen one, if you can find it, instead of the can one. You can serve the palm nut soup with rice, Fufu, gari, banku, ablo.

Palm nut soup

Ingredients

2 pounds of pounded Palm nut (1 bag)

5 cups of boiled water

Precook assorted meat (per taste )

– ¼ lb Beef tripe
– ¼ lb beef cube
– 2 smoked mackerel
– 5 pieces of precooked dried smoked tuna
– ½ lb of cooked snail meat
– ½lb beef skin

1 tablespoon of ginger

2 tablespoons of smoke shrimp powder

2 large Onion

2 medium tomatoes

1 red habanero pepper

4 green habaneros pepper for garnish for when needed more heat from pepper (optional)

2 medium fresh okra, head and tail removed. (It is optional but my dad loves having it in the soup)

2 Anaheim pepper (sliced in large) (optional)

½ medium sliced Onion (for garnish)

Salt to taste

1 small piece of Lanhouin (optional), use bouillon cube instead.

1 teaspoon of black pepper

Instructions

1

In a bowl pour the pounded palm nut add the boiled water.
Transfer into a strainer the finer the better until you obtain a golden liquid without impurities.

pounded palm nut

2

On a medium heat bring the golden liquid to a boil.
Add the fresh onion, red habanero, fresh tomatoes, let it cook for 5 minutes

deku-water

3

Remove the vegetables and puree them in a food processor.

liquid palm nut

4

Pour the mixture back into the soup.

piment

5

Add powdered shrimp, ginger paste and Lanhouin/ your bouillon cube

6

Add all meat but the smoked mackerel as it is soft
Cover and let it boil for about 10 minutes

mackerel

7

Add salt and the smoked mackerel
Let it boil for about 3 minutes

8

The soup is ready when red oil appears on the surface of the soup

9

Add the black pepper and the fresh vegetables
Let it simmer for 5mins

dekudessi

10

Remove and serve over rice, foufou, ablo or as is.

  1. Reply

    Thanks For Sharing this amazing recipe. My family loved it. I will be sharing this recipe with my friends. Hope the will like it.

    1. Reply

      I appreciate you so much and I am sure your family will enjoy it. Thanks so much for your support.

  2. Reply

    I appreciate you so much and I am sure your family will enjoy it. Thanks so much for your support.

    • Arch Urielle
    • August 21, 2024
    Reply

    Thank you very much for this recipe! It helped me a lot

      • Savourous
      • September 19, 2024
      Reply

      Aawh the pleasure is mine.

    • Emmanuel
    • September 19, 2024
    Reply

    Please try to correct or edit it again. Anyways thanks for the recipe. It really helped me a lot.
    Speaking
    from Canada.

      • Savourous
      • September 19, 2024
      Reply

      Hi Emmanuel,can you please tell me where the error is so I can go correct it. I appreciate you. 2 sets of eyes is always better than one set. Thanks again brother.

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