It's Souper: The first line of authentic African soups and sauces to hit mainstream grocers

Written By

Paolina Loseto

almost 2 years ago

The city of Toronto is certainly praised for its multi-ethnic food scene, with a range of culturally diverse restaurants in every neighbourhood. Our big-box grocery store shelves on the other hand, noticeably reflect a different story.

Nigerian-Canadian Lola Adeyemi, never dreamed of a career in the culinary industry. Proudly dishing out Nigerian classics at every work potluck (receiving much adoration in response from her colleagues), this former IT consultant and passionate home cook recognized the gap in African dishes from the grocery stores she shopped at and felt compelled to spark a change.

It's Souper came to fruition from a crave for nostalgia and was fuelled by the determination to have African food better represented in supermarkets.

"Our recipes are inspired by the fusion of cultures that exist in Canada, a yearning for authentic flavours from Africa, and a desire to share it with our community," says the founder and 'Souper' woman.

Soup is for every day, soup should be food for your soul. Soup is life!

"Every time I surfed the grocery aisle, I thought, 'Oh my. This isn't what soup should be,'" Adeyemi says. "Soup is vibrant, soup is exciting, soup is colourful, soup is an aromatic twist of flavours and textures exploding in your mouth, soup isn't only for when it's cold and dull outside, soup is for every day, soup should be food for your soul. Soup is life!"

Despite loving her corporate IT job, once the idea for It's Souper began brewing, Adeyemi was ready to leave the 9 to 5 world behind.

"The seed was already planted as an immigrant who loved sharing my culture and food," she says. "People always enjoyed the food I brought [to work events] from jollof rice, plantain, and pepper sauce. They wanted to know where they could buy this food or get ingredients to buy them and there was no easy way for me to help them than make it myself. At the time, I didn't realize the person who could help fill that gap in retail would be me, but when I started searching for something more to offer than my IT skills -- a lightbulb went off and I knew It's Souper would step in the right direction."

Since first devising the idea for her company -- It's Souper -- in 2017, Adeyemi has taken it from independent mom-and-pop stores to Sobeys and Whole Foods. She's created the first soup and sauce line made from authentic African recipes to be sold in mainstream grocery stores.

Fighting through the challenges brought by the pandemic and halting her expansion plans, Adeyemi decided to pivot to e-commerce and now has her own Shopify store where you can order delivery directly from her.

Recently, Adeyemi even appeared on Dragons' Den and secured a $180,000 deal with Wes Hall.

It's Souper currently has six products available online and in stores. They're all gluten-free, dairy-free and don't contain artificial flavours or preservatives. Four of the six are even vegan.

A favourite of Adeyemi's is the Moroccan Chickpea and Chicken Stew, made with Moroccan spices. Another meat-forward option is the Meat Lovers Chili made with ground beef and an assortment of vegetables. For a lighter option, find the vegan-friendly Roasted Carrot and Paprika Soup that contains red peppers, coconut milk and spices.

In regards to It's Souper's fully vegan (and spicy) sauce line up, find Adeyemi's favourite, a must-try, the Mozi Peri-Peri Sauce made with African Birds Eye Chili. Accompanying that in a two-pack online is the Green Pepper Sauce, known as Kpakoshito in Ghana, made with Scotch bonnet. Finally, discover It's Souper's West African Pepper Sauce, called 'Ata Dindin' in the Yoruba tribe of Nigeria, West Africa. Made with tomatoes, red peppers, onions, habanero peppers and curry powder, you'll soon be addicted to the flavour it packs.

Adeyemi plans to launch more products soon, adding additional sauces, marinades, soups and spices to her lineup, as well as hopes to expand into the US Market later this year. A future goal is to collaborate with local restaurants to further the brand's reach and get their flavours on more people's plates.

Catch the It's Souper team in person at Vegandale Toronto on Saturday, August 6, where they'll be collaborating with a chef to showcase their range of sauces.

Other than ordering online on their website, for the full list of locations carrying It's Souper, be sure to visit their store locator. Follow them on Instagram for tasty recipe inspiration and updates!

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