Cameroon | Main dish

Achu and Yellow Soup

Name: Achu and Yellow Soup
Prep time: 35 min
Cook time: 85 min
Total time: 120 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Cameroon, Central Africa
Ingredients: 2 kg cocoyams, scrubbed; 800 g beef, tripe, or cow skin, cooked until tender; 1 cup red palm oil; 4 cups hot meat stock; ½ tsp food-grade kanwa, dissolved in warm water; 2 tbsp achu spice blend; 1 whole hot pepper; salt, to taste

Cameroonian pounded cocoyam served with yellow palm-oil soup, kanwa, spices, meat, and fish.

Country

Cameroon

Region

Central Africa

Time

120 min

Serves

Level

hard

Start cooking Explore Cameroon recipes

01 / Get ready

Everything you need

Tap each ingredient as you gather it. Illustrations are visual guides; follow the ingredient names and quantities.

Servings 6

Scale the dish before you shop, then use the checklist while you cook.

Jump to method My cookbook

Ingredients

For 6 servings

Main dish

Achu

2 kg cocoyams, scrubbed

Stock

800 g beef, tripe, or cow skin, cooked until tender

Soup

1 cup red palm oil 4 cups hot meat stock ½ tsp food-grade kanwa, dissolved in warm water 2 tbsp achu spice blend 1 whole hot pepper

Finishing

salt, to taste

A few kitchen essentials

Suggested from the recipe method. Use equivalent equipment you have.

Lidded pot

02 / Let’s cook

One step at a time

Keep the rhythm calm, watch the texture, and adjust seasoning at the end.

Back to Cameroon

4 steps 35 min prep 85 min cook (check method) 120 min total hard

Boil cocoyam

Boil whole cocoyams until tender, then peel while hot.

boil cocoyam 45:00

Pound smooth

Pound cocoyam into a smooth stretchy mound and keep warm.

pound 15:00

Make yellow soup

Whisk hot stock, palm oil, kanwa water, achu spices, pepper, and salt until emulsified.

soup 10:00

Serve with proteins

Arrange achu with meat and ladle yellow soup around it.

serve 05:00

Yellow soup spice blends vary by family, but palm oil, kanwa, meat stock, and pounded cocoyam stay central.

Cooking notes, photos & serving ideas

Recipe context

More about this dish

Serving ideas, regional context, and cooking cues for when you want more detail.

When to cook it

Best for Sunday meals, cultural gatherings, and serious comfort food.. Plan on a hard cook. Allow about 120 minutes total.

What to serve alongside it

Boiled beef, tripe, cow skin, smoked fish, or hot pepper.

Regional lane

Cameroon national table. A structured Cameroon dish in the AfroKitchen archive.

Chef watch-outs

Stopping the base before the pepper, onion, or spice edge has mellowed.
Thinning the pot before the body of the soup or stew has developed.
Rushing the base before the raw edge has cooked out.

How you know it is ready

The sauce should coat the spoon and taste rounded, not watery or raw.
The aroma should smell rounded rather than raw or sharp.
Oil, sauce, broth, or steam should look settled and deliberate.

Pantry lane

bitter leaves, groundnut, eru leaves, waterleaf, palm oil

Recipe photos

See the dish before you cook

Take a closer look at the dish and its serving ideas.

Achu and Yellow Soup recipe from Cameroon — Achu and Yellow Soup finished dish

Chef board

Build the table around Achu and Yellow Soup

Boiled beef, tripe, cow skin, smoked fish, or hot pepper.

Best route from here

Cameroon national table

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