My favourite kinds of okro soup

frozen fresh okro

Cook me a good soup, I could eat pounded yam every day of the week.

Ogbono soup. Banga soup. Bitter leaf soup. Egusi soup. Okro soup. And many more.

I love them all!

Along with the exotic ingredients, another interesting thing about African/Nigerian soups is the different ways that people prepare them. No one egusi soup is exactly the same. What I like in mine might not be how you like yours. Some non Nigerian friends of mine like Nigerian soups but not so much when it comes to using fish, goat and beef in one soup. But that’s how I love my soups. That’s how I grew up. My mother has NEVER made any kind of soup using only goat, or just chicken. In my house, that’s unheard of.

That said, the basic ingredients are pretty much the same.

When it comes to okro soup, I like three different kinds. There’s what I call the “basic” okro soup (my grandmama made the best ‘basic’ okro soup EVER), okro soup with spinach (or other leaves), and okro soup with tomato stew (one of my uncles makes this so good that you’d bite your fingers). I eat my okro soups with pounded yam since I now have a food aversion to epa (kind of like pounded yam, but made with gari).

Here are my favourite kinds of okra soup. Happy eating!!

~basic okro soup~
Ingredients: goat meat, beef, okro, crayfish powder, chilli powder, Knorr, palm oil,
Directions: cook goat meat and beef together in a pot, adding water as needed. Just when they are both about totally cooked, chop up okro and blend it in a blender to your preference then add to cooking meats. Also add crayfish powder, chilli powder, Knorr, and palm oil. Cook for about 20 minutes in medium heat.

~okro soup with spinach~
Ingredients: goat meat, beef, okro, crayfish powder, chilli powder, Knorr, palm oil, spinach
Directions: cook goat meat and beef together in a pot, adding water as needed. Just when they are both about totally cooked, chop up okro and blend it in a blender to your preference then add to cooking meats. Also add crayfish powder, chilli powder, Knorr, and palm oil. After a few minutes, add spinach and cook for about 20 minutes in medium heat.

 

~okro soup with tomato stew~
Ingredients (tomato stew): fish, chicken, crayfish powder, chilli powder, Knorr, canola oil, thyme.
Direction: cook chicken and fish separately in different pots. Once cooked, drain chicken and fish and fry both. Once chicken and fish are fried, put a small amount of oil in another pot and let it warm up. Once warm, add chopped onions. After a few minutes, add tomato sauce and paste, chilli powder, crayfish powder and thyme. After a few minutes, add Knorr. Leave to cook for about 20 minutes. Then add fish and chicken and leave to cook for about 7minutes.
Ingredients (soup): okro.
Direction: chop up okro and blend it in a blender to your preference (I don’t like my too smooth). Put okro in a pot and cook at very low heat for about 15mins.
Serve okro and stew together in a bowl/plate.

Did you know?

“Okra is a popular health foods due to its high fiber, vitamin C, and folate content. Okra is also known for being high in antioxidants and is also often eaten as part of a weight loss diet since it is both fat-free and cholesterol-free. Okra is also a good source of calcium and potassium. The plant is cultivated in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions around the world like South Asia, Ethiopia and Western Africa.” – Wikipedia

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~ by omonaij on September 30, 2012.