It is really a great privilege for me to be part of this soup competition and I really appreciate the effort of @ecotrain and @charleywhittall for putting this up.
I find the challenges interesting so as to know more about different soups that would be posted here and also learn how to prepare them.
I am from Nigeria and am here to share with you one of our local Nigerian dish that is been prepared here and how simple and easy it is to prepare it. The soup I prepared is a vegetable soup called "Efo riro" in Yoruba language here in Nigeria and it is very easy and simple to prepare which is also nourishing and medicinal to the human health.
The "Efo riro" soup like I said earlier is very easy and simple to prepare regardless of how you prepare is but I prepared mine in a simpler way which would be very easy to learn and prepare.
The soup can be eaten with a swallow(Eba) which is made from cassava, rice, yam, plantains, even potatoes if you prefer to use it.
My ingredients for the soup
spinach
ugu leaf
fresh pepper
fresh fish
Red oil
onions
seasoning cubes and salt
The process on how to prepare the local dish soup
This particular soup have other varieties which you can add to it like stock fish, crayfish and meat but I preferred to use only fish to prepare a little soup.
The first thing you will have to do is to chop off your spinach and ugu leaf then soak it in a hot water for few minutes to soft before you can add it when preparing the soup.
After that I blend my fresh pepper and onions together which is the normal process when preparing the soup.
With these process been done you can now proceed to start cooking. Most people that uses meat and stockfish will first of all boil the meat and fish to steam before applying the steam water to the soup but in my case I just proceed it cooking it in another way since I didn't use meat in my soup.
The first thing that need to be done is to put your red oil on fire first, when it get heated a little then you apply your blended pepper then stir together for a little for the oil to lose it raw taste then you apply your fish.
The process of applying the dish now is to let is steam for a little while before adding your vegetables because if I should put the vegetables before the fish it won't be easy for me to stir because I don't want my fish to pieces in the soup, though it does not mean anything but I just want my fish to be visible in the soup.
After putting the fish to steam for a little while then I applied my seasoning and salt to make the aroma of the soup nice with the fish boiling too as well.
It was now time for me to apply my vegetables that I soaked in hot water to soften so before I add it to the soup I removed my fish to prevent it from scattering if I want to stir the vegetables in the soup all together.
Then I applied my vegetables after removing the fish
After doing that I allow it to blend with other ingredients in the pot by stirring it all together before applying my fish back.
After the process is been done yeah our soup is ready to serve. I decided to eat the soup with swallow (Eba) which is made from cassava better known as garri to make the combination a nourishing one to eat.
Garri
To turn the garri to Eba you will have to boil hot water then after the water is boiled then you apply the quantity of garri you want to make in the hot water then stir properly which will finally give you your Eba.
Eba
After all these is been done your delicious Efo riro soup and Eba is ready to serve.
The medicinal aspect of the soup
The medicinal part of the soup especially the spinach is used to treat stomach and intestinal complaints and fatigue in the body. It is also helps as a blood-builder and an appetite stimulant in the human body to maintain a healthy life.
In can also be used for Some people to use it for promoting growth in children and recovery from illness which is why spinach in vegetables soup is medicinal to human health.
The amount to get the ingredients to prepare this soup is at least 5 to 6 dollar which is not much to prepare the soup.
As you can see I had a taste of my delicious and medicinal Efo riro soup and Eba and I hope you guys have also grab the process of preparing it. I hope you enjoyed my cooking and process.