Are you able to pronounce the dish.? Not to worry ,simply put this is Water leaf Palm fruit juice soup, another Efik delight which is not cooked much these days. The simplicity of this soup which fits into the lifestyle of today’s woman is my inspiration to feature it. I know that many of us could do with 30 hrs a day. As much as we want to eat traditional soups with ‘swallow’ we are sometimes challenged with time . Today’s offering is quite simple to cook, as soon as you can squeeze out the palm fruit sauce 🙂
There are so many types of Nigerian soup made from palm fruit sauce…Banga, Abak Atama, Ofe Akwu to mention a few. Abak Nmong Nmong is another interesting Nigerian soup. I used quite some quantity of pepper in this soup , I simply like hot food. Enjoy!
Recipe ( serves 4)
6 Cups Palm fruit juice
8 pieces Beef
4 pices Cow Leg
Pieces of dry Fish
Pieces of dry Prawn
1 cup Water leaf
Chili Pepper to taste
2 table spoon ground Crayfish
1/2 medium size Onion ( finely chopped)
Beef seasoning to taste
Salt to taste
Method
1, Season beef, Cow leg with salt, pepper and seasoning and steam till almost cooked
2, Pour palm fruit juice into the meat pot and continue boiling.
3, Add onion, crayfish, dry fish and prawn and continue to cook till soup thickens (about the consistency of Ofe Nsala). Taste for seasonings and pepper level and correct.
4, Pick and wash the water leaves but do not chop . Add the water leaf to the soup , cook for two minutes
5, Serve with sallow of choice or rice.
How to get you Palm fruit juice
1, Wash and boil the palm fruit for about 25 minutes
2, Pound the palm fruit to separate the flesh fruit the nuts . You may also want to use your hands to squeeze out the flesh but you may not be able to get out as much of the flesh as when you pound it
3, Pour warm water into the pulp and squeeze out the juice
4, Pass juice through a sieve and use in cooking.
Cooking tip: Wondering how to preserve palm fruit? Wash and parboil for about 10 minutes, cool thoroughly and freeze. When you want to use,thaw and cook for another 15 minutes
We call it waterleaf banga soup here in Delta @ least among d Urhobos. Its one of my very favourite banga soup! So very tasty U r sure to over eat! My brothers r always fighting over d pot eventho dey r married and flown d coop!
Hi Verere. I had the same experience of people asking for more:) But tell me what spices do you use in the Urhobo version because I simply avoided using any for this dish as onion flavor clashes quite a bit with our local spices .
Waoh i will try dis dou where i am there is no waterleaf but hope i can use spinach
Hello Beke. Spinach will work as well. Water leaf and spinach are in same family
Looks simple enough. I will try it with some watercress
Hi,9jafoodie. Yes you can use spinach. Hmmm interested to see your treatment of the food picture:)
Will try this next weekend. Thanks for the recipe.
I discovered this site last week and I prepared this meal over the weekend my husband loved it. Thanks.