Cameroon | Main dish

Achu and Yellow Soup

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

Country
Cameroon
Region
Central Africa
Time
120 min
Serves
6
Level
hard
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Recipe overview

What to know before you cook

Use this overview to check the occasion, serving ideas, regional context, and cooking commitment before you begin.

When to cook it

Best for Sunday meals, cultural gatherings, and serious comfort food.. Plan on a hard cook and 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

Each recipe supports one main image and up to four extra prep, serving, or step photos when they are available.

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

Collections to keep cooking
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Servings 6

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

How to cook it

Step-by-step method

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

Back to Cameroon
4 steps 35 min prep 85 min cook 120 min total hard
1
Boil cocoyam
Boil whole cocoyams until tender, then peel while hot.
boil cocoyam 45:00
2
Pound smooth
Pound cocoyam into a smooth stretchy mound and keep warm.
pound 15:00
3
Make yellow soup
Whisk hot stock, palm oil, kanwa water, achu spices, pepper, and salt until emulsified.
soup 10:00
4
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.

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