Bitterleaf soup – Ofe onugbu (as the Igbos like to call it) is very delicious and also comes third on my list of Nigerian popular soups.
This soup is popular because it could be made in more than five different ways and can also be refrigerated for a very long time (even though I recommend two weeks at most for most Naija soups).
This soup can be made with either egusi (melon seeds), ede (cocoa yam), ofor, achi or even ogbono.
Bitter leaf soup, like most other Nigerian soups is named after the particular leaf which is used in preparing it. But of course you need to wash this leaf to remove at least ninety percent of the bitter taste, just so you don’t end up with a very bitter soup.
INGREDIENTS
2kg Meat of choice (beef, chicken, pork, turkey)
Bitter leaf (wash to desire)
Half cup of ground Crayfish
Maggi or knorr seasoning (3 cubes
Ogiri (a product of castor seeds)(optional)
Dry fish (2 medium sizes)
Stock fish head (1 big size)
Palm oil (about 25cl)
Salt and pepper to taste.
Cocoa-yam (pounded).
The bitter leave soup takes almost the same process as the making of uha soup, as a matter of fact, one pot of soup could be cooked up to the point of adding the leaves then you divide it to add uha to one and bitter leaf to the other.
COOKING METHOD
Bitter Leaf Soup Preparation
To soften the leaves and further remove the bitter taste, it is advisable to boil alone in ordinary water for 10 to 15 minutes, most people like to add a little quantity of edible potash to hasten this process but I highly advise against it. My reason being that this catalyst (potash) tend to affect the entire soup in a slightly negative way.
If you still want to add potash, it will completely wash off the bitter taste and soften the leaves in less than 3 minutes of boiling (the reason most people like using it), but then you would want to boil again alone and wash thoroughly with just water to remove every trace of the potash.
Parboil meat with every necessary ingredients, use 3 cube of maggi or knorr, a teaspoon of salt and half cup of onions. Allow to boil for 10 minutes then add water and cook till the meat is tender.
Add the (hot-water) washed dry fish, stock fish and cook until it is tender, add more water then add palm oil, ground crayfish, pepper, maggi seasoning, salt and pepper to taste. Stir and allow to boil.
At this point it should give a good soupy taste (even though it would be watery). Then add the pounded cocoa yam as you can find in the video below (at this point you can add the ground egusi if you choose to make bitter leaf soup with egusi), also add the ogiri now.
Cook till the cocoa yam dissolves, (this would likely take about ten minutes) then add the bitter leaves, stir, taste, add more salt if necessary then cook for three to two minutes and you are done with the making of Nigerian Bitter Leaf Soup (Ofe Onugbu)
Either of these five can go along with it – Eba, Fufu, Semo, Wheat or pounded yam
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