Okra soup is one of the most popular Nigerian soup, I like
this soup because it is very easy to prepare and likely the cheapest soup in
Nigeria.
I remember making a pot of (Okra) Okro soup with just two
hundred and fifty Naira, (10 years ago)… more like a one dollar soup.
I used frozen fish, Okra and some other ingredients to
prepare the soup, then you could buy a good frozen fish with just forty or
fifty Naira, I am talking about the “good old days”.
Okra soup is one of the most common soups eaten by the
people of Igbo, often it is combined with ogbono for best result, you can learn
more here about making Nigerian Ogbolo(ogbono) soup.
There are several reasons why I like this soups above other
Nigerian soups, the most outstanding reason being that kids love it, I learned
that the best way to introduce eba or fufu to kids is to serve with Okra or
ogbolo soup, this way it would be very easy for them to swallow, I have tried
it and found that it works perfect.
Sliced okro, cleaned roasted fish at the top right (or
frozen fish), combination of ground crayfish and red peppers.
Okro is also good for adults, as a matter of fact I just
made a pot of okra soup before writing this, a very small quantity that would
serve for this night, it is Sunday night here in Nigeria. I like this soup
because the two major ingredients are very rich in vitamins (okra and fluted
pumpkin)
So lets make a delicious pot of Nigerian Okra soup, The
exact way an Igbo woman would like to make it, Did I tell you that Okra is one
of the most popular soup in Igbo land especially from April to July, its exact
harvest season
Below is the list of ingredients that was used in the
process, you can always increase or reduce depending on the number of the
person you are looking to feed and of course their stomach sizes.
Ingredients For Okra (Okro) soup
Serving 4×2 | Preparation time:
Okra (a medium size bowl full)
Fluted Pumpkin leaves (as desired) optional – I don’t use
it.
Stock fish head (medium size)
1 kg of meat (beef, chicken, turkey, etc)
2 medium sizes frozen mackrel (optional)
Or Roasted mackrel (optional)
2 to 3 cubes of Maggi or knorr (seasoning)
Salt and pepper to taste.
200ml Red (palm) oil
half cup of ground crayfish
Okra Soup Preparation In Nigeria
Slice the okra and set aside in a bowl, the trader in most
Nigerian markets can assist you with slicing the okra, but you can also try
using a kitchen knife, I like to slice Okra myself, although there is no harm
in using the help of the market women.
If you want to make this soup with just frozen fish, the
process is a little bit simpler than using cow meat. You will need to parboil
the fish with all the necessary ingredients for five to ten minutes. Then pick
out with a fork leaving the extract (water from fish after cooking) in the pot,
add two cups of water also, then the hot-water-washed stock fish and dry fish.
But if you are making this soup with cow meat you would want
to parboil the meat with all necessary ingredients, I like to parboil meat with
lots of ingredients and then use very few ingredients while making the real
soup, it is likely that the whole ingredient would be left in the meat extract
(meat water) after parboiling. Parboil with only ingredients for about ten
minutes then add about two cups of water and cook till the meat is tender.
For me, I used a combination of fresh (frozen mackrel) and
beef.
Precook them together, remove the fish after 8 minutes and
continue cooking the meat until it becomes soft.
Add the stock fish, cook for about 15 minutes till they are
soft for consumption.
Add palm oil, crayfish, 1 or 2 cubes maggi (seasoning),
pepper and salt to taste. You will find a tasteful soupy combination. You can
add the ground ogbolo at this point if you are making a combination of Okra and
Ogbolo soup, it is a good combination even though I don’t do it often.
Add the okra five minutes after the ogbolo, stir, and cook
for about 3 minutes before adding the leaves (optional), you can use fluted
pumpkin or the normal pumpkin leaves. Allow to simmer for another 3 to minutes
and you can serve with eba, fufu or semo.
Comments