Africa → Sierra Leone → Freetown
🥗 STARTER
Salone Pepper Soup (Sierra Leonean Fish Pepper Soup)
A clear, fiery broth of blended onion and hot pepper with ginger, garlic and thyme, simmered with potato and finished with pieces of snapper, served hot in small bowls.
Sierra Leonean · easy · serves 4
prep 20 min · cook 35 min · plus 15 min hands-off time
~246 cal · 38g protein · 18g carbs · 1g fat · 3g fiber · 5g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Pepper soup is a clear, fiercely hot broth, and in Sierra Leone it is one of the best-loved dishes of all. It is served as a starter at official gatherings and parties, and it is even more popular in bars, where a bowl of it is said to clear the head.
At its simplest it is onion, garlic, a cube and fish or meat simmered with a great deal of hot pepper. Fish is a favourite in coastal Freetown, and goat, cow belly and pig's foot are all common too. Some cooks blend the onion and into the pot, some add ginger, thyme or a potato, and a spoonful of tomato puree for colour.
In Sierra Leone it is also taken as a remedy for colds and flu, and it is often drunk at the end of a party while the guests talk. At home it is spooned over rice as a meal, but in a small bowl on its own, before the main dish, it is a starter that wakes up the whole table.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
- 800 g (1 3/4 lb) red snapper or other firm white fish, cut into steaks
- 1 tsp salt, to taste
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 2 medium onions, roughly chopped
- 2 to 4 peppers, to taste
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2.5 cm piece fresh ginger
- 1.5 litres (6 cups) water
- 1 large potato, peeled and cubed
- 1 Maggi or other cube
- 1 tsp tomato puree
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
Instructions
- 1Rinse the fish, rub it with the salt and black pepper and leave it to season for 15 minutes.
- 2Blend the onions, scotch bonnets, garlic and ginger with a splash of the water to a smooth paste.
- 3Bring the rest of the water to the boil in a large pot. Add the pepper paste, potato, crumbled stock cube, tomato puree and thyme, and simmer for 20 minutes, until the potato is tender.
- 4Slide in the fish and simmer gently for 8 to 10 minutes, without stirring, until it is just cooked through.✎ Chef’s noteShake the pot instead of stirring so the fish stays in pieces.
- 5Taste for salt and serve very hot in small bowls, as a starter.
Sierra Leonean home tradition.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Freetown. Rice is not a side dish. It is the meal, and everything else is plassas, the sauce that goes over it; the standard complaint is that a meal without rice does not count as one. Groundnut soup, okra and jollof rotate around it, and pepper is used with an unapologetically heavy hand.
🗺️
Sierra Leone. Cassava leaf is Sierra Leone's national dish but not its invention: the same preparation runs across the region as plasas, palava sauce, saka saka and pondu. What marks the local version is groundnut paste going in alongside the palm oil, and leaves pounded fine enough that the stew turns almost smooth.
🌍
Africa. The structure repeats across most of the continent: one starch and one sauce. A grain or root is cooked stiff, torn or rolled by hand, and used to carry a stew of leaves, groundnut, okra or fish, usually from a shared bowl and with the right hand. UNESCO listings have followed that logic, inscribing couscous in 2020 as a shared Maghreb tradition and Ivorian attieke in 2024.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Sierra Leone
Cassava Leaf StewFinely pounded cassava leaves slow-cooked with palm oil, beef, and smoked fish over rice.
Sierra Leonean Fry FryA plate of assorted fried things with a peppery gravy to dip them in, the Freetown street breakfast.
Krain KrainChopped jute leaves stewed with red palm oil and smoked fish into a savory green sauce, served over rice.
Browse all Sierra Leone recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan, Blender.
Storing it: Soup keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and freezes well. Reheat gently and loosen with a little water or stock if needed.
Make it a Sierra Leone meal
Salone Ginger BeerDrink
Benne CakesDessert
Similar dishes from around the world
Pitche-Patche (Bissau-Guinean Oyster and Rice Soup)Guinea-Bissau
Ebbeh (Gambian Cassava and Seafood Soup)The Gambia
Irish Seafood ChowderIreland
Paplou (Omani Tuna and Lime Fish Soup)Oman
Bahamian Conch ChowderBahamas
Bergensk FiskesuppeNorway
Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Salone Pepper Soup (Sierra Leonean Fish Pepper Soup)?
A clear, fiery broth of blended onion and hot pepper with ginger, garlic and thyme, simmered with potato and finished with pieces of snapper, served hot in small bowls.
Where does Salone Pepper Soup (Sierra Leonean Fish Pepper Soup) come from?
Salone Pepper Soup (Sierra Leonean Fish Pepper Soup) is a Sierra Leonean dish from Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Can Salone Pepper Soup (Sierra Leonean Fish Pepper Soup) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Salone Pepper Soup (Sierra Leonean Fish Pepper Soup) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Salone Pepper Soup (Sierra Leonean Fish Pepper Soup) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Salone Pepper Soup (Sierra Leonean Fish Pepper Soup) take to make?
About 1 h 10 min in all: 20 minutes prep and 35 minutes cooking, plus 15 min of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 4.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.