How To Prepare Nigerian Native Popular Vegetable Soup- (Edikang Ikong Soup)

Vegetable soup and meat

Nigerian famous vegetable soup - Edikang Ikong Soup is very rich and nutritious and one of the Nigerian/ African meal you must try if you haven’t yet tried one. Everything to cook it could be obtained fresh which means all the essential diets and nutrients are intact. You are therefore assured of getting all the essential nutrients required for your body upkeep when you eat a well prepared Nigerian vegetable soup with of course its accompaniment-fufu, eba, pounded yam, amala, semovita, tuwo chinkafa and so on.

For people who really know the value of this nutritious and delicious food which is especially aboriginal to the Efiks and completely enjoyed and appreciated among aficionado and enthusiasts of excellent food throughout  the country. There are scores of folklore attached to this superb soup but we will show through the ingredients and the recipe that it is nothing more than a mere nutritious vegetable soup which is essential for the total and complete nourishment of your body.

vegetable soup with okazi

Ingredients for cooking Nigerian famous nourishing vegetable soup

To cook the soup, you will need:

About I kg / 21b assorted meats such as beef, cow tail, tripe, kpomo or cow skin, chicken, goat meat or bush meat

About 6 snails properly washed with alum, lemon or limes

About 450g / llb of stockfish properly washed and soaked a night before the cooking

About 450g / llb dry fish totally and completely washed and the bones removed 

Approximately 450g/ llb periwinkles completely washed and the shells removed.

Next, add about 22 5 g / 8oz totally dry prawns properly washed

Also add 225g / 8oz grounded crayfish

Add 1 average sized onion

Put 1.35kg/3 lb unsullied and clean ugu- pumpkin leaves completely washed and chopped.

Add 1 kg /21b clean waterleaf chopped and washed as well as shredded Okazi leaf.

Add about 200ml of palm oil.

About 600ml / lpt stock

Add pinch of salt and some magi to taste

The meat should completely washed put in a big cooking pot. Put a quantity of chopped onions, pounded pepper and a few meat stocks. Turn on your cooker and cook for about 30 minutes. While it is cooking, shell the snail and wash properly with lime, lemon or alum to remove the slimy liquid. Thoroughly wash the dry fish with salted water. You can leave the fish soaking in the salted water for about 5 minutes to exterminate any agent and untie any sand or dirt.

Wash the periwinkle thoroughly with lots of cold water and put together with the snails, stockfish, dry fish and dry prawns into the pot of meat and cook for additional 15 minutes top up extra stock if necessary. At the expiration of the 15 minutes, add the chopped okazi, ugu-pumpkin leaves and waterleaf and turn the mixture appropriately. 

vegetable soup and Eba

Leave the whole mixture to simmer on low heat for another 10 – 15 minutes adding the measured palm oil and crayfish. Allow the properly mixed soup to cook on low heat for another 10 minutes until well cooked. Turn off the fire and serve the soup with cassava fufu, eba, pounded yam, semovita , tuwon chin kafa or amala  and the like for a well balanced  meal.

African /European Food Recipes-Which Continent Has The Best Food Recipes?

What Do You Think Of These Nigerian Foods?

I have a friend from the Western world who told me that she can never taste rice in her life again and that the first time she tasted it, she doesn't find it palatable and nutritional enough. I was really marveled at her word because in Africa we usually think that rice is the only close food recipe we share with the western world. I also felt so intimidated that I could not respond to that because I know, I like rice very much and that for me as long as it contains all the necessary ingredients to make it a balanced diet, it is o.k. I was even more surprised that most westerners don’t know how to cook rice because contrary to what we think here, they have many different food recipes which they rate higher than rice the so called "giant of African and Asian food”.

What do you think? Which food recipe would you prefer, locally made food recipes from your continent or inter-continental dishes. Which continent has the best recipes of food? Which continent’s food is more delicious and nutritious? Africans mostly eat freshly prepared food.The western world on the other hand eat more of processed food though they also eat freshly prepared foods. Is there any benefit a freshly cooked food has over the processed ones? If yes, what are they? Let’s share your thought! Can one be malnourished eating processed food? Is there also the possibility of getting malnourished eating the freshly prepared food? In my opinion, I think that what matters is to eat a good balanced meal with all the essential nutrients needed by the body, irrespective of whether it is processed or freshly prepared. I am not talking as a professional in the food and health industry but as a lay man just pondering over the variety of nature.

One man’s food can be another man’s poison; they say. Nature is such a wonderful thing. It has provided us with the variety we have today in every aspect of human life; food and feeding habits inclusive. I think it is necessary that we respect people’s differences, likes and dislikes. That they don’t think or act our own way doesn't make them bad. Variety in life is just unavoidable.Nature has made it imperative that these varieties will exist. It is commonly said that Variety is the spice of life. If we cannot eat the food of people from other continents of the world, we should not condemn them as people eating inappropriate foods.You probably couldn't eat all the variety of foods even some among your continent’s favorite recipes. We should learn to tolerate one another for happy co-existence. Are you a good cook? Can you prepare palatable Nigerian recipes that are not only good to the eyes but also good for the stomach? What do you think of these Nigerian recipes? Feel free to live a comment if you wish.

Before I conclude I must say that there are many English cuisines I particularly liked and enjoyed just by merely trying them. We learn every day.We could lose brilliant opportunities by not trying. We become better and more polished individuals when we give varieties a try. God has made humans very resilient and pliable. If we are lucky enough to discover this innate ability in us as humans, sky will not only be our limits but a stepping stone for a greater height. Whether in terms food cuisines or food recipes and in fact every aspect of our human life and daily endeavor, variety is the spice of life.