HOW TO PREPARE DELICIOUS EDO BLACK SOUP.
Have you heard of black soup?
Black soup? Yeah, black soup.
Black soup is a delicacy from Edo state, Esan. It’s a very delicious soup and easy to prepare. No stress!
The dark color scares most people, we get it from the ground leaves. Leaves that you used to cook other Nigerian soups. The difference is that we ground the leaves.
The leaves used in this recipe are the bitter leaf and Uziza leaf. Some use the bitter leaf and scent leaf (efirin) but I used bitter leaf and Uziza leaf. If you don’t have the uziza leaf, the seeds could be used. Just grind it with the bitter leaf.
To grind the leaves, I made use of a blender but if you don’t want to use the blender, try the grinding stone.
I’m sure no one would want to go through that stress. So, I would advise you to use the blender.
It doesn’t matter your language/ ethnic group, you would love this soup. Try it.
INGREDIENTS FOR BLACK SOUP
- Beef
- Banga (palm fruit)
- 1 thumb ginger
- one scotch bonnet
- 1 large mackerel
- ½ cup of crayfish
- Smoked fish
- Kpomo (slice it into tiny bits)
- Onions
- Garlic
- 1 tablespoon of dry pepper.
- Salt
- Seasoning cubes
COOKING STEPS
- Place the pepper, onions, garlic, ginger, and scotch bonnet into a blender and blend.
- In a pot, add the beef, kpomo, and fish. Season 2 bouillon cubes and salt. Also, add the blended ingredients and cook for 10 minutes.
I didn’t add water to the beef cause the beef has its juice that would be extracted. The toughness of the meat depends on how long it would take to cook.
- Remove the fish and meat from the pot and fry/grill.
- Wash the Banga properly and boil for 30 minutes. Pound with mortar and pestle to extract the juice. When you’re done pounding, add water, squeeze out the juice, and sieve.
- To the content in the pot after you’ve removed the fish and beef in step 3, add stock fish, add some quantity of water, stir and leave it to boil.
- Wash the bitterness properly so that the bitterness will not be in the soup.
- Pour a reasonable amount of water into the blender and blend the bitter leaf with the Uziza leaves/seeds.
- After the content in the pot has boiled (step 5) add dry fish/smoked fish, crayfish, and the Banga. Cook for 10-15 minutes. Taste for salt and seasoning.
- Add the meat, fish, and blended leaves. Cook for 5-10 minutes.
P.S.: make sure the soup is not too thick or too light. Let it be moderate.
Enjoy your delicious soup with any swallow.
Did you enjoy the soup?
Let us know in the comment section.