Name: Ghanaian Light Soup
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Ghanaian
Ingredients: 800 g chicken pieces on the bone; 1 onion, about 150 g, chopped; 4 tomatoes, about 400 g; 3 cm piece fresh ginger; 4 garlic cloves; 1 scotch bonnet chilli; 1 litre water; 1 tsp salt; 1 aubergine, about 300 g, cut into 3 cm chunks; 1 tbsp ground crayfish or dried shrimp; 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil or scent leaves

Ghanaian Light Soup

A thin, fiery tomato and ginger soup with chicken or goat, aubergine and scotch bonnet, served with fufu or rice.

1 hr 5 min total Serves 4 servings Easy

Before You Start

Skim any foam from the surface.

Use less scotch bonnet for a milder soup.

Serve with fufu for authenticity.

Cooking Ghanaian Light Soup

Tap a step to highlight it, or turn on Cook Mode for large type and step-by-step focus.

Blend the onion, tomatoes, ginger, garlic and scotch bonnet until smooth.
Put the chicken in a pot with the blended mixture, water and salt. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 30 minutes.
Add the aubergine and crayfish and simmer for 10 minutes until tender.
Stir in the basil and serve hot.

What's Going On Here

It is called light, but it is not mild. Light soup is a Ghanaian broth that is thin as water, orange-red from tomato and fiery with scotch bonnet and fresh ginger, and it is the soup people eat when they have a cold or when they want something comforting. The name refers to its clarity; there are no thickeners.

The base is made of onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic and a scotch bonnet, blended together and boiled with chicken pieces. The soup is simmered, not stewed, so it keeps its freshness: 30 minutes is enough. The meat should be on the bone, because the bones give the broth body. Use plenty of fresh ginger. It is the dominant note.

Garden eggs, the small white or green aubergines of West Africa, go in whole or halved for the last 10 minutes, where they turn soft and sweet. Ordinary aubergine, cut into chunks, does the same job. Add a few dried or smoked fish pieces for depth if you can find them.

Season with salt and a spoonful of ground dried shrimp or crayfish. Serve in a deep bowl, with fufu or plain rice on the side, and a spoon.

After You've Cooked It

Keeps in the fridge for 3 days. Reheat gently.

Common Substitutions & Variations

Dried chilli flakes can stand in for the chilli. Heat varies a great deal between chillies and between jars, so start with a small pinch and add more to taste.
If you only have ground ginger, a quarter-teaspoon for each tablespoon of fresh is the ratio usually given; it tastes warmer and less bright than the fresh root.
An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

Serving Ghanaian Light Soup

Fufu
Banku
Boiled yam
Plain rice