Welcome to another episode of the Hive learner's Creative Sunday initiative, participating in the challenge is one of the things that makes my Sunday great and I will encourage you to also participate.
The rules to the challenge are cool and you can find everything you need to know about the Creative Sunday initiative [Here]
As usual, I will be sharing some cooking recipes.
Today's post is about a Nigerian soup and it is one of my favorites. There are numerous beliefs about this soup because of its nature which pisses me off, just because a soup has a slippery texture has nothing to do with your life.
I have seen people condemn this soup and some other soups but speaking ill of it only makes me love the soup more.
Which soup am I talking about?
It is called Okra soup and I think we have this plant in different parts of the world but we prepare it differently.
I recently saw a Philippine meal that had Okra cooked as a whole and I was surprised because it is a different process for Nigerians.
Okra is rich in vitamins like C, K, and others which are very essential for the human body system.
Let's get to the kitchen.
I find the soup very easy to prepare because it is a straightforward process.
Below are the ingredients I used.
- Okra
- Pepper
- Fish
Palm oil
Cowskin
- Bitter leaf
- Seasoning.
Before starting any cooking, these things listed below must be done.
The okra must be cut into smaller pieces and there are different ways to do that. You can use a grater, or just chop the okra on a chopping board.
Blend your pepper and onions to satisfaction.
Wash the bitter leaf to reduce the bitter taste or you can just slice and rinse it if you think it is not too bitter for you.
Wash your fish or fish and any other thing properly ahead of the cooking.
There are two ways to have the okra soup, the first one is preparing it as a plain soup in which you will just add your pepper sauce at the end while the other way is cooking the recipes and okra together like you are preparing a concoction(Yoruba call it Ila alasepo)
I made the two kinds explained above, all I did was just simple magic at the end because I use the same procedure to make both styles.
Procedure.
- The first thing to do is to cook your okra first with little water or more depending on how thick you want the soup to be.
- Stir it while cooking so that all the okra will be properly cooked.
It doesn't require much cooking time, 5minutes is okay. You can cook your bitter leaf soup or any vegetable of your choice with okra.
Remove the okra from the fire when it is ready. It draws a lot when it is cooked and that's one of the best things about it.
Preparing the sauce.
Heat your Palm oil
Add your onions and allow them to fry for a few minutes.
- Add your fish, meat, cowskin, seafood and any other thing you can add. Let it fry for a few minutes as well.
Turn your blended pepper into the oil and add your sauce.
Allow it to fry for 5 minutes and your sauce is ready.
I mentioned earlier that you can serve the soup as a plain okra soup with sauce on it.
To do that, you need to add very little seasoning (salt & Maggi) to the cooked okra to make it tasty. Stir it very well when you have added the seasoning and you can serve the soup after.
Or you can also serve the soup as a concoction (mixture of pepper and okra). The popular way is cooking the okra in the soup but you can as well do it my very easy way.
To do that, turn your cooked okra into the sauce and mix well until they blend in completely. It is simple as that.
Okra soup can be taken with any swallow meal and I made Eba (cooked Garri) for mine.
The soup is really economical, it doesn't cost you much money or time. We don't eat this soup often at home because I am the only one who loves it so when I prepare it, I put so much effort into it.
Fun fact about Okra soup.
Okra is a common soup but you can see it being served at parties because of its slippery nature, you can't be perfect at having it with a swallow meal and it will definitely leave a dent on your cloth, it is not prepared well if it doesn't.