Nigerian Black Soup

My journey to bring the rich variety of Nigerian soups takes me to the people of Edo state and it is Black Soup.You get the best of combination of herbs and vegetables such that  with each mouthful of the Black soup and smoking hot whole wheat meal or pounded yam, you feel nourishment going straight into your blood vessel .
My hairdresser of many years, Pat ,shared the recipe and says it is a regular on her soup list. No wonder she maintains her smooth skin :). Vegetables sure help the health and texture of the skin .
I  went the extra mile with this soup to do it in the real traditional way, blending the veggies on the grinding stone, yes grinding stone! Anything for my fans:).

Surprisingly, I found the process quite fast and guess what another chore that helps to strengthen the arm muscle *wink *wink.
I remember when growing up that this was one of those dreaded chores, grinding tomato onion and pepper. Onion and pepper were the more difficult ones .Whilst the onion will always slip off the grinding stone, you also had to be mindful of the pepper stinging your hands. Hmmm how kitchen blenders have changed cooking process.

I know that many of us don’t have grinding stone or have never even seen one, yes your blender will be fine in blending the vegetables but I noticed that grinding on the stone gives a different texture to the vegetables .With the stone I do not use water to get the vegetables well blended. All I did was chop them up a bit and grind. When blending you need only very little water as this is not a very loose textured soup.

One more thing about this soup is the very little palm oil that is used, making it quite interesting if you are on a diet and want to reduce calories and fat but still want to eat soup. You may also wish to try my oil less okro soup if you want to reduce palm oil. I want to believe that the very little palm oil used is where the Black soup gets its name from. So prepare your whole wheat meal and settle down to dig in.Enjoy!

 

Recipe for Black Soup

Ingredients
4 piecesSnails
4 pieces Beef
1 medium size Smoked Fish
12 pieces Smoked Shrimps
4 tablespoon ground Crayfish
1 cooking spoon Palm Oil
1 small bunch Scent leaves( effirin)( ground, 1 cooking spoon)
2 balls washed Bitter leaves ( ground, 1/2 cooking spoon)
1 small bunch Uziza leaves( ground 1 cooking spoon)
1 bunch  Ugwu (optional) ( ground, 1 cooking spoon)
2 seasoning cubes
1 tablespoon dry Pepper
Chopped fresh pepper for garnishing

 

Method for cooking Black Soup

1, Season and cook beef in a cup of water
2, Add washed snails, dry fish, shrimp,crayfish, pepper, seasoning and palm oil cook for 10 mins
3,Grind or blend all herbs and vegetables into smooth consistency  and add to pot of meats.Add a little more water if soup is too thick. The consistency should be like Ibo Egusi soup.
4, Stir , taste and correct the seasoning and cook for 2min
5, Serve hot with whole wheat meal pounded yam