Egusi substitute

Best substitute

Raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas), ground

Use the same amount by weight as the egusi you are replacing

Best for egusi soup

Different taste

Ground raw pumpkin seeds are the answer, at 1:1 by weight, and this is one of the rare cases where the substitute is genuinely close: same oil content, same clumping and thickening behaviour, so the soup sets into curds the way it should. Raw sunflower seeds also work at 1:1 and taste a little more toasty. Ground raw cashews or blanched almonds thicken well but give a smooth velvety soup rather than a curdy one, and peanut butter makes a delicious groundnut soup that nobody would call egusi.

Other egusi substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Raw sunflower seeds, ground
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
Cheap, widely stocked, and similar in oil content to egusi.
What changes
Best for
egusi soup, thickening soups and stews, budget cooking
They thicken and clump properly, which puts them alongside pumpkin seeds as a genuine option. The flavour is more assertively nutty and toasty with a faint bitterness at the finish, so the soup tastes a shade heavier and darker than it should. Use raw and unsalted seeds; roasted salted sunflower seeds will make the soup salty and give it a distinctly roasted flavour that reads wrong.
3Hulled raw watermelon seeds
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
The closest botanical relative you can find outside an African grocery.
What changes
Best for
egusi soup, soups where the mild flavour of egusi matters
Being melon seeds, these are the mildest and most neutral match in flavour, so the soup tastes closest to the original in that respect. They are a little lower in fat than egusi, which means the soup ends up slightly less rich and the curds a bit less cohesive. Add an extra tablespoon of palm oil to compensate. Look for hulled raw seeds, not the roasted salted snack kind.
4Ground white sesame seeds or tahini
Taste and texture differ
Use ¾ the weight of egusi, or ½ cup tahini for every cup of egusi
Excellent thickening and richness with a much bigger flavour of its own.
What changes
Best for
thick soups and stews, quick weeknight versions, dishes served with rice
Thickens beautifully and brings plenty of fat, so the body of the soup is right. The flavour is the issue: sesame is strong and perfumed and pushes the dish towards a Middle Eastern or Chinese register. It also emulsifies rather than clumping, so you get a smooth glossy soup with none of the characteristic egusi curds. Use less than you would egusi, since it is more intensely flavoured.
5Ground raw cashews or blanched almonds
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
Creamy, rich and reliable thickeners with a sweet edge.
What changes
Best for
smooth thick soups, stews served over rice, milder versions for children
These give real richness and thicken well, but they are noticeably sweeter than egusi and they blend into a velvety puree rather than setting into lumps. The result is a good soup with the wrong texture, closer in feel to a nut-thickened curry than to egusi. If the curdy texture is what you want from egusi soup, choose pumpkin or sunflower seeds instead.
6Natural peanut butter or ground roasted peanuts
Taste and texture differ
½ to ¾ the amount of egusi
A different West African soup entirely, and worth being honest about.
What changes
Best for
groundnut soup and stew, chicken and vegetable stews, when peanut flavour is welcome
Peanut flavour dominates completely, and the soup becomes sweeter, smoother and heavier. What you end up with is groundnut soup, which is a genuinely excellent dish in its own right and eaten across West Africa, but nobody would mistake it for egusi. Use less than the egusi quantity because peanut butter is much richer, and add extra stock to keep it loose.

What is Egusi?

Egusi is Egusi, also spelled agusi and sold as white melon seed or ground melon seed, is the hulled seed of a West African melon, used whole or ground as the thickening and protein base of Nigerian egusi soup rather than as a seasoning.

Cooking tips

Grind dry and grind coarse. A spice grinder or a dry blender in short pulses gets you a texture like fine breadcrumbs, which is what you want. Go too far and the oil releases and you have seed butter, which will never form the lumps that egusi soup is defined by.
Mix the ground seed with a little water or stock into a thick paste, drop it into hot palm oil or simmering stock in spoonfuls, then leave it completely alone for eight to ten minutes. Stirring too early breaks the curds up before they have set, which is the most common reason homemade egusi soup comes out grainy and thin.
Egusi scorches easily and turns bitter when it does, so keep the heat moderate and scrape the bottom of the pot occasionally once the curds have set. If it catches, do not stir the burnt layer in; move the soup to a clean pot.
Whole egusi keeps for many months in a sealed jar, but ground egusi and any ground seed substitute goes rancid quickly because of the high oil content. Grind what you need and freeze the rest in a sealed bag, where it holds its flavour for months.
If you would rather have a smooth soup than a curdy one, blend the seed paste into the stock and simmer it instead of dropping it in spoonfuls. Both versions are made in Nigerian kitchens, so this is a preference rather than a mistake, but decide before you start.

Frequently asked questions

What can I use instead of egusi in egusi soup?

Ground raw pumpkin seeds, at 1:1 by weight, and it works better than almost anyone expects. The oil content is close enough that the paste sets into the same soft curds in hot palm oil, so the texture of the soup is right rather than approximately right. The soup will be a pale olive-green instead of pale gold and taste very slightly sweeter and grassier. Raw sunflower seeds are the next best option.

Are pumpkin seeds really close enough to fool anyone?

Close enough that the dish works properly, though someone who eats egusi soup often will notice the colour and a slight difference in flavour. What matters most about egusi is not its taste, which is fairly mild, but its behaviour: high fat content, coarse grind, and the way it clumps into curds. Pumpkin seeds share all three, which is why they succeed where cashews and peanut butter, both delicious, do not.

Can I leave egusi out of the soup?

Not really. Egusi is not a seasoning, it is the substance of the soup, providing the protein, the fat and the thickening all at once, so leaving it out gives you a thin peppery broth with greens in it. If you have no seeds of any kind, you would be better off making a different Nigerian soup entirely, such as efo riro or an okra soup, both of which get their body from elsewhere.

Can I use egusi that is already ground?

Yes, and it is what most people buy, but check it first. Ground egusi is high in oil and goes rancid within weeks at room temperature, so smell it before using: it should smell nutty and faintly sweet, not sharp, paint-like or musty. Keep it in the freezer. If you can buy whole seeds and grind them yourself in short pulses, the soup will taste noticeably fresher.

Why did my egusi soup turn out bitter or grainy?

Bitterness almost always means it caught on the bottom of the pot or the seeds were rancid to begin with. Graininess usually means the paste was stirred before the curds had time to set, or the seeds were ground too fine so the oil released and they never clumped. Keep the heat moderate, grind coarse, and leave the spoonfuls of paste undisturbed for a solid eight to ten minutes.

Related substitutes

More nuts & seeds substitutes

Egusi substitute

Other egusi substitutes

2Raw sunflower seeds, ground

3Hulled raw watermelon seeds

4Ground white sesame seeds or tahini

5Ground raw cashews or blanched almonds

6Natural peanut butter or ground roasted peanuts