Achu Soup (Yellow Soup)
This gloriously yellow achu soup is creamy and comforting Cameroonian home cooking. It’s fairly common in the Western and North West provinces and always paired with mashed or pounded achu coco (taro). Elegant comfort food.
If you have been looking for a recipe for achu soup, also known as yellow soup and sauce jaune, here you go! This recipe had been on my blog to-do list forever, but I kept putting it off for one reason or another. But then, I wanted to start the last New Year with a hometown favorite!
This gloriously yellow, delicate soup can be superb or catastrophic, depending on whether you carry out certain essential points. Traditionally, it is made with a fusion of beef or chicken broth, red palm oil (not the controversial kind), limestone, and a variety of spices.
Most of the spices I really cannot identify by name because they’re always grouped together and sold as achu spice. So that’s how I buy them.
What Is Achu?
This dish is typical of Cameroonian home cooking and is fairly common in the Western and North West provinces. It’s always paired with mashed or pounded achu coco (taro). Here, I used the food processor to blend the achu coco. If you have a mortar and pestle and desire a smooth consistency and perfect texture, then by all means use it! For mortals like us, this is as good as it gets.
The modern version of this soup is ridiculously easy to make. The liquid fusion can be accomplished using a blender, giving it an added dimension of smoothness, and in less than 2 minutes, you are done. How cool is that?
Before you pound away… here’s a question for you. Is it okay to eat achu soup with a spoon? Yes or no?
How to Make Achu Soup
- Boil the meat (beef, cow skin, tripe, etc.), seasoned with salt and red pepper, until tender. You can do this faster in a pressure cooker. (Photos 1-2)
- Strain the meat from the broth and set aside. Let the stock cool to room temperature.
- Pour the cooled stock into a blender, then add warmed red oil, achu spice, limestone powder, and bouillon powder and puree until smooth and emulsified. It should turn a beautiful yellow color. (Photos 3-4)
- Place the meat in a bowl, and pour the yellow broth over it. Or serve the soup in a cocoyam bowl (instructions in the recipe card). (Photos 5-6)
How to Make Achu Coco
- Steam the cocoyam and optional green bananas until tender, no need to peel. (Photo 1)
- Rinse in cold water so you can handle them without burning yourself. Remove the peels, and puree the cocoyam and bananas in a food processor or mortar and pestle. Add salt to taste. (Photos 2-3)
- Wrap a scoop of the mixture in banana leaves or plastic wrap, and form it into a log. Or serve them like you would mashed potatoes. (Photo 4)
Recipe Notes
- If you can’t find achu spice at your local African market, try Amazon or another online store. It contains esese (calabash nutmeg), pebe (Jamaican nutmeg), and peppers. So if you need to substitute it, mix ground nutmeg with ground white, black, and red pepper.
- Achu coco, cocoyam, and taro are all similar, so use whatever you can get.
- Crush the limestone with a rolling pin or, even easier, buy it already ground.
Make Ahead and Leftover Instructions
Make a double batch and freeze half of it for later. It will last 3-4 days in the fridge or 4-5 months in the freezer for a taste of home on the fly.
What Pairs With Achu Soup
I love fufu with soup. But you could also serve it with mashed potatoes and freshly made bread. Healthy greens on the side turn this into a full meal.
More Comforting African Soups to Try
By Imma
Watch How to Make It
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Achu Soup
Ingredients
The Soup
- 1-2 pounds (450-900g) assorted meat (beef, tripe, cow skin, smoked fish, dried crawfish, etc.)
- salt (½-¾ teaspoon (3-4g) per pound)
- ground red pepper to taste (or a whole scotch bonnet)
- 6-7 cups (1½L) stock (or 6 cups water with 2 tablespoons beef bouillon)
- ½ cup (118ml) red palm oil
- 2 tablespoons (15g) ground achu spice
- 1 tablespoon (10-11g) bouillon powder or Maggi
- 1 tablespoon (10g) ground limestone
Achu Coco
- 4-5 pounds (1.8-2.25kg) cocoyams (taro)
- 2 green bananas or plantains (optional)
- salt to taste
Instructions
Achu Soup
- Add the meat (beef, cow skin, tripe, etc.) to a medium-sized saucepan, season with salt and red pepper, pour in 6 cups of stock (or bouillon and water), and boil until the meat is tender. It can take 30-60 minutes, or longer, depending on the choice of meat. You can cut this process in half with a pressure cooker.
- Remove the meat from the broth and set it aside. Let the stock cool to room temperature. Reserve about 6 cups of broth for the soup, and save (or freeze) the rest for another recipe.
- Heat the red oil just until it becomes liquid in the microwave or on the stovetop.
- Pour the stock into a blender, then add the warmed red oil, achu spice, limestone powder, salt, and bouillon powder (or Maggi) and puree until smooth and emulsified. It should turn a beautiful yellow color. Adjust seasonings to taste.
- Place the meat in a bowl, and pour the yellow broth over it. Or serve the soup in a cocoyam bowl.
Mashed Cocoyam
- Steam the cocoyam and optional green bananas until tender, no need to peel.
- Rinse in cold water so you can handle them without burning yourself. Remove the peels, and puree the cocoyam and bananas in a food processor or mortar and pestle. Add salt to taste.
- Wrap a scoop of the mixture in banana leaves or plastic wrap, and form it into a log. Or serve them like you would mashed potatoes.
Tips & Notes:
- You can purchase cocoyam (taro) in most Asian, Indian, and African stores.
- Feel free to adjust the amount of hot pepper, even omitting it if desired.
- Achu spice is usually found in African stores, mainly Cameroonian-owned. Amazon also has it. Or replace it with nutmeg and ground pepper.
- Make your broth flavorful. If it’s bland, add more pepper, salt, and bouillon.
- A little bit of smoked fish adds another dimension to this dish. And some people add dried crayfish while boiling the meat.
- The key to a good achu soup is the right combination of limestone and oil (if the soup separates, add a little bit of limestone and pulse again).
- Please remember that the nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary significantly based on the products used in the recipe.
hi Imma thanks for this recipe i will most definitely try it tomorrow thanks
Awesome! Do let me know how it works out for you. Thanks !
Can I use a pot to pound the coco yam ?
If that’s what you have, go for it . Hope it goes well once you try it please share your experience.
Thanks for this. But please I have a worry, what is the role of the local species of bananas added to the cocoayam by some Cameroonians?
It helps to give the coco yams a soft and smooth texture.
What happens if you peel your cocoyams before boiling?
Hi Annick. Peeling the cocoyams might end up with mushy cocoyams. Leaving the peeling on ensures that it is soft but not too wet. Hope this helps :)!
This was of great help. I am in the US and can’t seem to find limestone. Would you have a suggestion of what company packages it or where to find it?
B
Check out this market here . They do carry it http://tropicalfoodinc.com
I need to find limestone. Where can I?
Hi Fannie! Check out this market here . They do carry it http://tropicalfoodinc.com
Thanks, but could you also give us the nutritive value of thus wonderful dish?
Ill do my best to do a nutritional analysis on this.
I love this dish do much but fear sometimes think I can’t make it. With this briefing I now believe I can do it. More grace to you
Can’t wait for you to try this, Mira. Please do let me know how it works for you.
Hello Immaculate!
My wife (western Cameroonian) and me (German) are discussing about the function of the limestone in this soup. Please, could you tell me, what does the limestone do in this dish? What happens, if there is no limestone used?
Yours thankfully
Andreas
Hi Andreas!
I hear you! We’ve have had many discussions centered around this soup and limestone before . Limestone stone helps in emulsifying the broth and oil. You can’t blend water and oil together without some sort of chemical to keep it together.
And that’s the role of limestone. It helps break down the the oil and broth together to form the yellowish color, inherent in achu soup.
Hope this helps.
That’s why at my restaurant I use (Nikki. Plantain peels) rather than limestone.
Hi Imma,
I really do love your recipes! Please do keep the good work and may God bless you. I just have a comment on the limestone use in Achu soup and its diatery importance. Limestone is a very rich source of calcium (needed for healthy bones). Limestone is used to enrich bread and cereals with calcium, livestock feed too just to name a few.
Hi Esther! Thanks for taking the time to share this with us. Very informative.
You can mix the very big taro root and the small one the big one are harder and the smaller one are soft so it will create a better texture soft but not overly soft like when you use the small taro root only . Just my 2 cents thank you again for all you do
What a great tip! Thank you so much for taking the time to chime in. Will definitely give it a try when I make it next time.
Imma,
I think you are giving me hope. Am an offspring of bamenda parents, and boy that was the saturday meal in the house! I just always thought and professed that I could not make achu, but boy there’s hope. Who knew you could put taro in a food processor. I’d settle for the powdered form which I saw my aunts cook. Watch me walk in during the next family get together and introduce something new (HAHAHA) Shhh am not sure I want to share my new found secret yet lol
There’s hope! Achu is quick and easy dish to make. By the time you are done making some of these Cameroonian Delicacies your family is going to FLIP!
No Worries Girl! My Lips are sealed.
Lovely site dear. Well done
Thanks!
Thanks for this great job. Can u list the mark of the preferred food processor machine or the one u are using? Thanks
I use Cusinart- There are various sizes , check it out at amazon and pick the one that works for you. Mine is the Cuisinart FP-14DC Elite Collection 14-Cup Food Processor
Glad it worked out for you Ema.
Thanks very much..I.m from Bamenda but everytime i make my soup the oil always seperate but with the blender it.s perfect thanks again..
Thanks very much for all these. I could not imagine my self using a blender to mix all the ingridents..Very good idea..
Thank you so much Imma, you are a lifesaver 🙂
Happy to be of help!
loved the achu soup. The taste was great. Very easy to make. But most of the Taro was discarded. Next time I will use cocoyam fufu instead. Thanks a lot.
Kelsey ,sorry to hear about the Taro, sometimes they can be tricky depending on the ones you get. Thanks for the feedback!
Hi Imma,
Thanks for sharing.
Before I try out this recipe, kindly educate me on how healthy limestone is to the body
Nina, there is not much to be said about limestone- it is certainly not healthy for the body. To be on the safe side you may use baking soda. I have never tired it but a lot of people I know, have used it and they say it works just fine. Thanks for stopping!
Hi ImmaculateBites,
nice recipe, thanks. Much can be said on ‘kanwa’ though…
The results from one study on ‘kanwa’ used in achu soup showed trona (trisodium hydrogendicarbonate dihydrate i.e. a combination of sodium bicarbonate or baking soda and sodium carbonate) to be the main constituent, NOT calcium carbonate (or limestone). You can read here: http://www.academicjournals.org/article/article1380626835_Ekosse.pdf
Trona is a common food additive – check here: http://www.solvair.us/SiteCollectionDocuments/articles/trona_safety_health.pdf
I managed to cook my first achu soup with your help 🙂 Thanks
Dabro,glad you were able to cook your first achu soup and really appreciate the article.
Chaiiii, DaBro, na only analysis for achu soup so? LOL. You fit make man start think say all di years, man dong di drink na chemicals. Formula dem wey I see for da ya articles dem eh, Pa, lef’am so. Anyway, thanks for sharing, bros.
Imma~
You are a darling. Fullstop!!
Thank you, always.
How awesome are you? I love you for this lol!
Immacule, you truly are amazing, you need to please provide lessons, i would come and also be on Youtube!
It would be nice to watch you actually cook stuff, like Nigella Bites..lol!
Thanks.
Patricia
Perfect I have several Cameroonian friends who have made this for me..and I simply love it. They just never got the chance to teach me. Now I can try making this with with your resipe.. Just a few question
I am from Sierra Leone and most of the ingridents you have called I am sure I know them and think it is known
by a differnt name with us, but just want to be sure, red oil is it the same as palm oil…don’t know if you know what palm oil is..but it look so similar to it in the pictures, if you know is it what I use as your red oil…
And I I eat the soup with something eles like cassava fufu or baked fried ect
plantains..
usually when I eat it in Cameroon household I just go for the soup lol, I don’t like it with what Cameroonens usually eat it with.
Please excuse my grammar
Satta Jah
So excited that you are willing to try this Satta. Red oil is the same as palm oil. Now, eat this soup with whatever starchy accompaniment you like- as long as you enjoy it . Please let me know how it works for you.Thanks
God bless you immaculate. So i can now cook achu? Thanks so much for this recipe. I have few questions; about how long should i heat the oil if it’s already in liquid form? If using crayfish, should i boil it together with the meat, i am worried boiling it together with the meats without blending because it might look odd around the meats. Or do i boil the crsyfish separately, blend then add it to the stock. Regarding the taro. Just wondering if it gets smooth without lumps with the use of a food processor . Thank you!!
Aww, thank you.
Now in regard to your questions.
Heat the oil for about 1 minute , then let it cool.Definitely blend the crayfish – just like you would grind coffee( my aunt would often drain the beef broth after boiling the meat and crayfish- you may do so). Your idea of boiling the crayfish separately, blend and add to the stock is great too!
It is ok, to cook achu without crayfish . Most people do . Smoked fish is good enough. I did not use crayfish in this recipe. Did not feel it is needed here..Plus, I am running out of crayfish.
Ok, I have never been able to achieve the smooth consistency that you get from pounding the taro with a mortar and pestle. You will definitely have some lumps in the taro, but not a lot. Thanks once again.