This week on our Afro Cuisine recipe is Black Soup. It is another #TastyThursday and we want you to savor a taste of Africa. You can search for the ingredients in African stores around you; or better still take a trip to Africa and give your tastebuds a treat.
Black soup is a popular and tasty (Edo) Esan soup, it is quite delicious and easy to prepare.
It really doesn’t matter your language or ethnic group, if you try this soup and get it right, you are going to have the same experience as those that have been enjoying it for ages.
Most people complain about the dark color, it gets the color from the grinding of the vegetables. The vegetables used in preparation are quite popular in cooking African soups.
The difference is that we chose to grind it in this recipe. There are many benefits of eating this soup.
It is super tasty and offers several health benefits.
There are three basic vegetables used in making this delicious soup. While some argue extensively that only two are important, it is obvious that all the three are necessary. These vegetables are actually ground together with the native Edo grinding stone or the electric blender.
Ingredients For Black Soup
Scent leaf
Pumpkin leafs
Uziza(hot leaf)
Ebenuwa
Bitterleaf (parboiled before use)
Palmnut extract(optional)
2/3 Cooking Spoon of Palm Oil
Cubes Seasoning
Salt
Dry fish
Bonga fish
Snail
Handful crayfish blend with the leafs
Locust beans
Any meat of choice (beef or goat meat)
Blended fresh peppers
Black pepper
Onion
Directions
Grind all the vegetables together, these ground vegetables act as the soup thickener and also gives it the black looking color, hence the name – black soup. You can blend to paste by adding a little water to ease up the movement of the blades. Grind the bitter leaves separately while the uziza and scent leaves were mixed together.
Wash and boil the meat with half a cup of onions, 1 seasoning cube and a pinch of salt. Cook for 30-45 minutes, until the meat becomes soft and easily chewable, you can add a little water to stop it from getting burned.
Add the dry fish (hot-water-washed), stockfish, crayfish, add the banga sauce and allow to cook for up to 15 minutes until the soup mixture thickens.
This picture above gives you a visual illustration, you can see that the soup is already thick, thanks to the banga (palm fruit) sauce.
Add the ground vegetables, stir, add 2 seasoning cubes, salt to taste, allow to simmer for another five minutes and you are done.
As usual, serve with eba, fufu amala or pounded yam.