Ofe Nsala (White Soup)

Nsala soup, also called white soup is a delicious soup in Igbo land. It is the only soup made without palm oil, so it tends to look like a slightly thick pepper soup. Very easy to make, healthy and tasty, I can’t think of any reason you shouldn’t try this.

Ironically, despite being from the South Eastern part of Nigeria, my first time tasting this soup was during my service year. My friend told me she discovered a restaurant that makes the best white soup, so we landed there the next week, straight from CDS, all dressed in our khaki. Suffice to say, I have been hooked since then.

You can use fresh catfish, it is very perfect for white soup, but I don’t like catfish, so I decided to use goat meat and assorted meat.

To show readers the basic ingredients — Cross section of my basic ingredients

To show readers what local spices look like — Local spices…ehuru, uda and uziza seeds.

INGREDIENTS FOR WHITE SOUP

-Goat meat

-Assorted cow meat

-Dry fish

-Stockfish

-Uziza seed

-Uda

-Ehuru (African nutmeg)

-Yam or yam powder

-Dry crayfish/prawn

-Fresh pepper

-Seasoning cubes

-Ogiri (Optional, I didn’t use in mine)

-Uziza leaves

-Utazi leaves

-Salt

PREPARATION

Start by peeling and boiling the yam, then you go ahead to pound in a mortar. The yam serves as thickener. DON’T SALT THE YAM BEFORE BOILING.

To show readers quantity of yam used — Raw Yam

To show readers what the pounded yam looks like — Yam after pounding. Please make it soft, so it can dissolve faster.

Do well to roast your ehuru. You can put in a frying pan and roast.

To show readers my roasting method — This is how I roasted mine.

After that, grind or pound your uziza seed, uda and ehuru together. Be careful with the uziza seed as it is spicy. If you have pepper soup spice, you can use it. You can also find how to make your pepper soup spice HERE.

To show readers the grounded spices — Grounded ehuru, uda and uziza seeds

To show readers my grounded prawns — Grounded prawns.

To show readers my sliced leaves. — Sliced uziza and utazi leaves.

Set all of them aside…

NOW TO THE COOKING

STEP 1: Put all your meat and dry fish into a pot, season them properly and allow it to cook till it is tender. The tougher ones should go first and the softer ones last, so they don’t scatter.

Cooking of the meat — All my meat in the pot. I used a pressure pot to soften the tough ones.

STEP 2: When they are all properly cooked, add water to the pot. This should depend on the quantity of soup you want to make and most importantly, the quantity of your thickener.

STEP 3: Allow the pot to boil for some more minutes, then you go ahead to add your fresh pepper, crayfish and local spices. Please the local spices should be added first, check for the spiciness before adding fresh pepper.

STEP 4: Allow to boil for some minutes, then you add your pounded yam.

STEP 5: After some minutes, your pounded yam should have dissolved.

What your pot should look like when the pounded yam has dissolved.

Go ahead and add your uziza and utazi leaves sparingly. Check for seasoning and adjust if necessary. Soup is ready.

To show the finished work — What would you have this soup with?

Feel free to recreate this recipe and tag @a_lazy_cook_gram on Instagram.

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Yam Porridge With Vegetable

This is my first post here and I am super excited. I dedicate this post and the yam porridge to everyone who encouraged me to do this. I do not take you all for granted.

You can call me a Lazy Cook and if you are like me or even better than me, I promise you will find my recipes easy to work with.

To the matter of the day, who else has a love-hate relationship with yam? It really has to be prepared well and by me, else I won’t enjoy it. There were big tubers of yam in the house, so why not? I decided to indulge myself.

NOTE: The oil level is my preference, you can increase yours.

INGREDIENTS

-Yam

-Dry/smoke fish

-Palm oil

-Seasoning cubes

-Fresh pepper

-Ground crayfish/prawn

-Salt

-Vegetables

PREPARATIONS

-Wash and cut your vegetables.

-If you are using dry fish, soak and pick out the bones.

-Peel, wash and cut the yam into your prefered sizes.

-Slice or rough blend your onions and pepper.

NOW TO THE COOKING OF YAM PORRIDGE

STEP 1: Put your already cut yam into a sizable pot. Pour water into the pot, it should be a little above the yam.

Add the dry fish immediately, so it can cook and also infuse its flavour. If you are using smoked fish, add in Step 2.

To show the initial stage of the cooking — Yam and dry fish ready for cooking

STEP 2: When the yam is half done, pour in your palm oil, blended crayfish/prawn, pepper, onion, salt and seasoning cubes. Give it a light stir and cover to continue cooking.

Adding palm oil — Adding the palm oil. I used just one spoonful, you can use more or even less.

STEP 3: By now the yam should be properly done and the oil has mixed well. So you can go ahead and put in your sliced vegetable. Stir and leave for few minutes. 2 mins is okay. Put off your heat and serve hot if you want

I served mine with leftover meat from my stew.

Feel free to replicate this meal and tag me on Instagram @a_lazy_cook_gram.

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