How to Make Assorted Meat Pepper Soup
In every Lagos bar worth its salt, there's a pepper soup that doesn't pick favourites. It doesn't choose between beef and tripe, between cow foot and kidney. It takes everything, throws it into one pot, and lets the broth sort it out. That's assorted meat pepper soup.
The word 'assorted' is doing a lot of work here. It means variety, abundance, the refusal to settle for just one cut. When you order assorted at Chipat Bar, you're getting a greatest hits of the butcher's counter: the lean chew of beef, the springy bite of tripe, the gelatinous richness of cow foot, the clean mineral flavour of kidney, and the soft, iron-rich slices of liver.
Each meat has its own cooking time, its own personality. Cow foot needs an hour before it even thinks about being tender. Liver needs eight minutes, tops. The art of assorted pepper soup is timing: knowing when to add what, so everything arrives at perfection together.
The broth is where the magic happens. As the cow foot breaks down, it releases collagen that turns the liquid silky. The tripe adds body. The beef adds depth. By the time you stir in the pepper soup spices, you have a base that's already extraordinary before the heat even arrives.
At Chipat Bar, we've been making assorted pepper soup since we opened in 2018. It's the order that regulars place when they want the full experience: every texture, every flavour, every piece of meat telling a different story in the same bowl.
The scotch bonnet goes in late, because the heat should build, not ambush. And the utazi leaves at the end are non-negotiable. That bitter edge cuts through the richness of all that meat and collagen, keeping the soup balanced even when it's loaded with everything.
This is the pepper soup you order when you can't decide. And honestly, it's the pepper soup that decides for you: you didn't need to choose. You needed all of it.
Assorted Meat Pepper Soup: The Recipe
Ingredients
Method
- 1
Prepare the assorted meats
Wash all the meats separately and thoroughly. Tripe needs the most attention: scrub it with salt and lime, then rinse until the water runs clear. The cow foot should be pre-boiled (ask your butcher to do this). Slice the kidney, removing the white core. Cut the liver into thick slices; thin slices will fall apart in the broth.
- 2
Cook the tougher cuts first
In a large pot, combine the beef, tripe, and cow foot with one chopped onion, half the garlic, half the ginger, one seasoning cube, and 12 cups of water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a steady simmer. Skim the foam. These tough cuts need 45 minutes to 1 hour before they start to yield. The cow foot will release collagen into the broth, making it silky and rich.
- 3
Add kidney and build the spice base
Once the beef and tripe are tender, add the kidney slices, remaining onion, garlic, and ginger. Stir in the pepper soup spice mix, ground crayfish, and remaining seasoning cubes. Let everything simmer together for 15-20 minutes. The broth should be deeply aromatic: smoky, warm, and complex.
- 4
Add liver and scotch bonnet
Drop in the liver slices and scotch bonnet peppers. Liver cooks fast, 8-10 minutes is enough. Overcook it and it turns chalky. For proper Lagos bar-level heat, crush the scotch bonnets slightly. For a gentler version, leave them whole. Taste and adjust salt.
- 5
Finish with utazi and scent leaves
Turn off the heat. Stir in the shredded utazi leaves and torn scent leaves. The bitterness of the utazi and the herbal punch of the scent leaves balance the richness of all that assorted meat. Cover and let it rest for 5 minutes. Serve in deep bowls, making sure each serving gets a mix of all the different meats. That variety is the whole point of assorted.
Every spice used here is laid out in our pepper soup ingredients list, with pictures and both the Nigerian and botanical names.
Prefer to Skip the 1 hour 45 minutes?
We keep a pot going at Chipat Bar. Assorted Meat Pepper Soup is ₦5,000 on its own, or ₦7,000 with sweet potatoes, yam or plantain.
Available Mild, House or Extra Hot on request. Delivering across Lagos.
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Patience Agwu
Owner, Chipat Bar Ikoyi
Patience has been cooking and serving authentic Nigerian pepper soup in Lagos since 2018. Every guide and recipe on this site is drawn from years of daily kitchen experience at Chipat Bar.
Or skip the work. Let us make it for you.
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