First off let me start by saying that this is my favorite Ghanaian soup. I love how light and aromatic it is. Mostly I love that the heat that doesn't come from chili but from ginger.

The first time I had rice and light soup was at Guinness spot at Dansoman junction, it was introduced to me by my eldest sister’s friend. Up until that moment I had never had it and my mind was literally blown. The soup was so light and packed with so much flavor that I just wanted to eat it forever. Over the years, together with my older sister, we would immediately dress up when we found out our eldest sister would be visiting this person because we knew that no matter what happened there would be rice and light soup. Just as it began, it ended so abruptly on one sunny weekday. My sisters and I decided to take our niece along for one of the visits. After chatting, we went to guiness spot for the usual. Everything was going well until we heard very loud sounds; it was my cousin cracking bones with her teeth and biting the spoon and chewing loudly. No matter how much we tried to speak to her with our eyes she just wouldn’t stop. She didn’t stop there, she decided to chew everyone’s uneaten bones. We just decided to stop eating and watch her but that didn’t deter her either, she forged on and cracked every single bone to smitherens. She was barely 10 years old. As I’ve lived, I have never heard anyone chew so loudly and crack bones with such vigor as she did that day. The strangest part of all of this was that she never ate in this manner at home. We told our mom when we got home and she never allowed any of us to go back there lest we embarrass her. Here we are now at a full circle moment, 15 years after and this is how I remember the light soup. I have added a few of my favorite herbs and spices that I love.
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Enjoy!

Recipe

what you need

1.2kg hard/stewing* chicken, cleaned and cut

Akoko mesa/fresh basil, as much as you want

Spices & Herbs

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano or 2 fresh leafs

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme (1 sprig fresh thyme)

1/4 teaspoon cumin (optional)

3 cloves

1 small calabash nutmeg

2 grains of selim

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary/ 1 teaspoon dried rosemary

3 small sage leafs or 1/2 teaspoon dried sage

For the marinade

All the spices & herbs

1 large onion

Red chili peppers 🌶 (I used red for color so you can use any chili type available)

1 thumb sized ginger (1 tablespoon)

1 garlic bulb

I like to mix up my herbs, I mostly use a mix of fresh and dried herbs in my recipes. You could do the same in this recipe, it doesn't necessarily need to be fresh sage or rosemary. It just turns out that those were the only fresh herbs I had on deck. You could use fresh thyme or oregano, there should be at least one fresh herb in there.
I used hard/stewing chicken because it has more flavor and is perfect for slow cooked dishes which this soup is. That said you can use the soft kind or even replace with turkey if that’s what you like. You’d have to adjust cooking time though and it might not be as delicious as this soup is.

For the soup

2 medium very ripe fresh tomatoes

2 large onions

1 garden egg , divided into 2

1 small carrot, divided into 3 (substitute with garden egg if unavailable)

2 star anise

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 extra garden egg, sliced ( will be added to the soup almost at the end, optional)

Directions

Blend all the ingredients for the marinade into a very smooth paste (use as little water as possible to blend). Pass marinade through a semi fine sieve. Place chicken in a pot and pour marinade over chicken cuts and add salt. Rinse the blender with 1/2 a cup of water and pour over chicken. Allow it to sit for 20 mins.

To make the soup, place pot over medium heat, allow it to come up to a simmer then continue simmering for 5 minutes then add 5 cups of water such that the chicken submerges completely. Add the veggies (carrot, onions, tomatoes and garden egg) and star anise. When soup begins to boil scoop the foam that floats on the surface (get as much out of it as you can).

Remove veggies when they’re completely soft, after about 40 mins and blend with one cup of water into a smooth paste. Pass through a fine sieve and add back to soup. Add the tomato paste and turn heat to low. Cover and allow soup to continue simmering. Scoop any foam off the surface of the soup. Taste and adjust salt. Keep eyes on the soup, if it's getting a bit too thick add a bit of water. Taste and adjust salt every time you add water.

Allow soup to cook gently until meat is almost tender then add the sliced garden eggs if using any. Keep simmering until garden eggs get soft. Add a pinch of sugar/chicken seasoning cube if soup is a bit too sour (I didn’t need it in mine because my tomatoes were quite ripe and sweet). Add more water if soup is too thick or let it cook longer if too light. Add the akoko mesa and stir. Taste, adjust salt then turn off heat.

Serve soup warm with my cumin rice , turmeric rice or my tea bread.