Bitter leaf soup (Ofe Onugbu) is a native soup with it’s roots from the Eastern part of the country. As opposed to its name, this soup isn’t supposed to be bitter. If it’s bitter then it is assumed that you did not wash the leaves properly. It can be eaten with eba, semovita, pounded yam and so on.
Bitter leaf soup is very similar to Oha soup (How to prepare oha soup) and they are prepared the same way. The only difference between these two soups are the vegetables/ leaves used in preparing them. They don’t taste alike despite this similarity.
Ingredients
- Bitter leaf
- Meat (any kind)
- Locust beans (iru/ogiri)
- Dry and stock fish
- Cocoa yam (thickener)
- Palm oil
- Cray fish
- pepper
- Salt
- seasoning cubes
Before you prepare bitter leaf soup
Wash your bitter leaf well by rubbing it with both hands while it foams. Decant the dark green liquid, and repeat washing as many times as possible till the water is clearer and the bitterness of the leaf is reduced.
If after washing and your leaf is still bitter, boil the leaf with potash for like 10 minutes, rinse and squeeze.
Boil your cocoa yam till it is soft. Remove the peels and pound to a smooth paste.
Grind your cray fish and pepper.
Wash you meat properly and spice.
How to cook
1.Boil your meat and season as desired. When the meat is almost cooked, add your dry fish and stock fish and let them cook together.
2. When they are well cooked, add water to the stock.
3. Add palm oil to the stock and boil for about 5 minutes.
4. Add your cocoa yam paste in lumps and boil till the lumps dissolves. This serves as a thickener, so the amount depends on how thick you want the soup to be.
5. Add the crayfish and pepper powder.
6. Add about one teaspoon of locust beans (iru/ogiri) and leave to boil for like 5 minutes.
7. Put appropriate amount of seasoning cubes and salt to taste and stir.
8. The bitter leaf should be added at this point. After adding the leaf, heat for like 3 minutes and remove to help preserve the nutritional values of the leaf.
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