Pepper Soup Spice

Learn how to make the best African pepper soup spice! Even if you don't have the traditional ethnic spices, you can make it using everyday spices from your local grocery store.

African pepper soup dishes are made with a blend of complex and unique spices. These spices are commonly found in the West African region and used in a variety of ethnic soups, like this goat meat pepper soup.

If you have ever tasted an African pepper soup, you might be wondering what gives it its unique and earthy flavor. I’m going to show you how to make pepper soup spice from scratch using the traditional ethnic spices, and also how to make it using regular spices.

Traditional Spices Used

Alligator pepper: also known as Grains of Paradise, Guinea pepper, and Melegueta pepper. In Nigeria, this spice is known as Atare, Atariko or Ulima seeds.

Alligator pepper has a nutty, woody flavor with a hint of citrus. It has a nice peppery taste without any harsh after-burn.

It also makes a great substitute for black pepper for those that don’t like the taste or are allergic to it.

Selim pepper: also known as Grains of Selim, Ethiopian pepper, Senegal pepper, Negro pepper, Kani pepper or Uda seed. This pepper has a musky flavor of smoked herbs with a hint of bitter cocoa. It is similar in flavor to peppercorns.

Calabash nutmeg: also known as Jamaican nutmeg, African nutmeg, and Muscadier de Calabash. In Nigeria, it is known as Ehuru, Ariwo or Ehiri, depending on what tribe you’re from.

This spice is very similar to nutmeg and is grown in West Africa and also in the Caribbean islands.

How to Make Pepper Soup Spice

Using traditional African spices

1. Roast the calabash nutmeg in a dry pan for about two minutes.
2. Grind the calabash nutmeg, selim pepper, and alligator pepper together to a fine powder. My go-to grinder is this handy coffee grinder or this mortar and pestle set.
3. Make sure they are well mixed together and store in an airtight container.
4. This makes 3 tablespoons of the pepper soup mix and each serving has 0 net carbs and 0 calories.

You can get all these spices from amazon or an African store and mix yourself or just buy a pre-packaged pepper soup spice mix. I have done both and I honestly can’t tell the difference as they both turned out really good.

Using spices commonly found in the grocery store

It can be quite hard to get the native pepper soup spices if you don’t live in Africa. I like to order from Amazon sometimes but the items frequently go out of stock.

So I began to experiment with different household spices to see if I could come up with something relatively close.

After a few hours of mixing, smelling, tasting and shoving my spice blend under my husband’s nose for his approval, I eventually came up with a mix that mimics the taste of the traditional blend.

The ingredients I used are Allspice, Peppercorn, Ginger, Cayenne pepper, Fennel seeds, and Cumin.

Allspice has a woody flavor that resembles a combination of cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg. So if you don’t have allspice on hand, you can recreate it using half a teaspoon each of cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

To prepare the pepper soup spice

1. Using a spice blender, grind the peppercorn and fennel seeds to a fine powder.
2. Mix all the spices together and store them in an airtight container. This produces about 3 tablespoons of the pepper soup mix.

One serving is roughly 1 - 1.5 tablespoons, depending on how strong you want the flavor to be. As you can see, both spices are similar but not quite the same. But if you can't get the traditional spices, this option will work perfectly as it tastes really close to the original.

What can I use pepper soup spice for?

This spice is perfect for African soups like this Nigerian Pepper Soup and this Fish Pepper Soup. You can also add small quantities to any stew or soup to really enhance the taste and flavor.

Check out these African pepper soup recipes!

Chicken Pepper Soup

Goat Meat Pepper Soup

Nigerian Pepper Soup

Fish Pepper Soup

📖 Recipe