Dooney's Kitchen

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Traditional Nigerian Soups

Afia Efere – white soup

It is called Afia Efere in the Efik culture. You probably also know it as Ofe Nsala, the Igbo name for it. The Efik version is a little more aromatic because of the addition of Uyayak, the aidan fruit. What uyayak does to the soup is better tried than imagine. It is called white soup because no oil is involved, even though I don’t agree because the soup is anything but white. The first time I tasted this soup was at a restaurant in Abuja. I saw it on the menu and kept wondering how anything cooked with Nigerian ingredients could be white. When the bowl arrived, I thought huh, the waiter must have gotten my order wrong. This soup is anything but white. She then explained why it is called white soup. My first impression was, it smelled and tasted like peppersoup. I am that customer who bombards waiters with questions, and the poor lady had to explain how it is made, ending with it is eaten by the Igbo and Efiks.

I kept that in mind when next I was seeing Joy my Chief Efik food tutor, and she showed me how it was done. I still insist that I should have been named Oilless something something or brown soup something else but White soup would have sufficed me thinks. Hehehehehe. Anyways, one thing I am sure we would agree on is the fact that it is deeeeeeeeelicious. Commonly prepared for mothers who have just given birth, you would wish you had a baby too, then you think of the 9months and the labour pains, and go naaaah, I will still enjoy the soup, baby or not.

The shortcut to making this is to simply use already ground peppersoup spices. Yes, it will taste great, and smell amazing but make White soup 2.0 today by grinding your own spices and taste the difference. I wrote a long list for my mum when she vas visiting last year, and I made sure those spices in their whole form were on the list. The difference is so  much better, I am never going the peppersoup spice powder route again. Funny thing is, I just eyeballed it and prayed seriously that it wouldn’t be bitter or overpowering. Especially as I was preparing it for my neighbour on her birthday, the pressure was on. My cooking fairy angels were working in full force that day and I can proudly say this was the best pot of Afia Efere that I have ever made. As for the spice combination, as I mentioned before, I only eyeballed it, therefore what I will recommend as my recipe worked for the volume I wanted to cook. I did not even use all the ground spices, because 2 and a half tablespoons or thereabout, was just right.

A very simply dish that is guaranteed to wow. What I don’t get though is why it is served with pounded yam. Hey, you thickened the soup with pounded yam. I always deliberately eat Afia Efere with anything else but pounded yam, until hunger dictated that I pinched out of the pounded yam to be used for thickening and mopped up a bit of the soup. Ooooooooh, so this is what I had been missing. Okay now, from henceforth, Afia Efere will be served with Pounded yam in my household. You can share with me, what you serve your own Afia Efere with. Let’s get to cooking

You will need

2 pieces of Ehuru – ehu or Calabash nutmeg

3 pieces of Uda

1 piece of Cameroon pepper

1 teaspoon of Uziza seeds

Uziza leaves

Uyayak – aidan fruit

Crayfish

Dry Pepper – cayenne pepper

Goat meat

Assorted meat

Smoked fish

How to

Select your spices. Below, you can see the long black pod called Uyayak. Naming from left to right are Uziza seeds, Ehuru, and Uda. I forgot to take a picture of Cameroon pepper.

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It is essential to rinse the uyayak pod because its ridges can harbour dirt. I also remembered this time to break it into two as Joy taught me. You would need some arm cardio to break it though. This thing is very tough.

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1. Add the spices to a mill and blend. You don’t want it entirely as smooth as the texture of peppersoup spice mix.

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2. To your boiled goat meat and assorted meat, which you have given extra flavour by boiling with smoked fish, add extra water, crayfish, dry pepper and uyayak. Bring the contents of the pot to a boil.

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The oil you are seeing floating on top is from the dissolved fat beneath the skin of the goat meat. I intentionally used smoked goat meat with the skin on for this soup. It gives it that true local Nigerian flavour. Taste for salt and season and re-adjust if necessary. By now, you will be able to smell and taste the flavour from the Uyayak

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3. Add the ground spices. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: it is better to add the spices in tablespoon increments and taste shortly afterwards, just so you don’t go overboard. I added roughly 2 and a half tablespoons to this pot. Once the spices go in, turn down the heat to simmer, this is to allow the spices to permeate the meats.

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4. By step 2, you should have peeled your yam and placed on the burner to cook. You should be ready to make pounded yam now. As you know, I am allergic to manual labour where food is concerned. hehehehehehe. I brought out my kitchen helpers. Today, I am using my Chef Tony Hand Blender with the chopper bowl attachment. Nifty little gadget I got from Ebay. You can make pounded yam with a mixer, food processor, hand mixer and even traditional blender, used at home for blending pepper.

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add the boiled yam cubes to the bowl

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and cover

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this happens in seconds

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ta daaaa. Pounded yam. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: I must stress though, that when using pounded yam as a thickener for white soup, you only need to mix till it gets smooth. You don’t need to keep the machine on till it becomes stretchy and elastic. This is just a waste of time, and it will take much longer for it to dissolve in the soup, so be mindful of that. The pictures below is what you want to achieve. Smooth and no lumps

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see the texture, like mashed potatoes. This is what you want.

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this stretchy texture is NOT what you want. This is the texture for eating

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5. Now that you have your pounded yam, turn the heat back up and scoop the pounded yam into the pot in small to medium-sized balls

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watch as the pounded yam starts to melt into the soup

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6. You have the option of scooping out some of the pounded yam, before it melts completely if you want a more fluid or watery soup. I enjoy Afia Efere a little thick, so I allowed all the pounded yam to melt. It is your choice which option you go for.

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some little dots of pounded yam will probably still be floating around, simply use the cooking spoon to press them along the sides of the pot, and they would dissolve.

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7. Now the lumps have disappeared, your soup is almost ready. You can add hot water to dilute if you feel it is too thick. Taste for salt and seasoning, and re-adjust if necessary.

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8. Finish off my adding freshly chopped uziza leaves, for extra flavour. You just need about a handful or less. Just as you would add efinrin (scent leaf), to peppersoup.

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Serve hot……………..Enjoy

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This is my Sunday Lunch. Off to make some Pounded Yam. Have a nice week y’all. Mine is going to be packed, and I am also expecting a special visitor.


50 Comments

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FILED UNDER: Traditional Nigerian Soups
TAGGED WITH: afia efere, Ofe Nsala, white soup

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Comments

  1. Dooney
    Good yo be here again.just saw this now, ill try and do dis asap!just want to thank you once again for effortless skills being displayed here.More of Gods grace!

    Reply

  2. I really do not where to start ….I made banga and I thought I have enough spices but you have come with all these Uda etc again.When my family do shopping of what to bring over for me next time they are going to wonder what happened to me….my list is getting long.

    Reply

    • Looooooool, Ade. Hmmmmmn, the spices that Nigeria has, needs a book of its own. It is my dream to write a book about our spices. We have enough to match India and China, it is just sad that our food is too insular. I hope The Lord grants me The Grace to be able to fulfil that dream. Our spices deserve an Encylopaedia. Don’t worry, just tell your people you have become a cooking wizard. Looool

      Reply

      • All my life in naija i don’t look at the ibo woman selling spices but since i discovered you i will spending a whole day shopping spices on my next trip.Please hurry up with the book I need your autograph now that I can afford it without breaking the bank.
        Thank you so much .Big hug x

        Reply

        • Aaaaaaaw, glad I have been able to expand your cooking repertoire. You just keep praying with me, the power of more than one person praying for a particular thing is incredible. One day that book will be published. AMEN. Big hugs back to you too

          Reply

    • Rosemary, the Uyayak was left there food presentation. I wanted something else to contrast with the meats and the uziza leaves. It was taken out after taking pictures. Thanks

      Reply

  4. Wow, praise God for this post
    l’m pregnant and l’ve being craving for this soup for the past 14 days.

    Please where can l get all these ingredients cos l live in the UK, (stevenage) (and l understand you do too), please where can l buy them. (or what are the things l can leave out if l cant wait to go to london and l want to cook it tonight)
    If l knew your house u wld av seen me at ur doorstep tonight.

    Reply

    • Hi Toto, congrats on the baby. I wish you a smooth sailing pregnancy and healthy baby. I am not familiar with stevenage, so I don’t know what the African stores there stock. You can take the picture along with you to your African store and see if they stock it, otherwise just use peppersoup spice powder mix. I would have gladly made you some tonight if you lived near me. Big hugs.

      Reply

      • You are so right at that peppersoup powder mix, thanks for that tip but in case l come to London, which shop pls

        Reply

        • It depends on where in London you go to. I can only recommend BIMS at Peckham because that is where I shop and can guarantee you that you will find everything you are looking for

          Reply

          • Ah just reading ur response.
            Reason being that l used the following day busy cooking this soup.
            l didnt give you a feedback cos it didnt turn out well.
            All was going well until l added uziza leaves at the last stage ooo(nb: they were the dry packaged ones). The soup came out bitter as if l added raw bitter leaves. So it’s either d leaf is fake or l didnt do something right. l dont know d fresh uziza so l cant say. The soup was dissappointingly bitter. l managed to swallow it wit eba.

            On the brighter side, l did buka stew on Sat and it came nicely, so there’s still hope for me
            🙂
            Keep up the good work sis.

          • The leaves are most likely not uziza leaves. I bought dried efinrin last week, thinking it was the correct thing only to find out after it was in the soup that it was bitter leaves. Sorry about that. At least, you nailed Buka Stew, well done. I do hope you try the white soup again

    • To be honest, I don’t knwo because I have never tried it, but you know what, cooking is always about experimenting, use what you have at your disposal to get what you want. So, try potatoes and lets see how it turns out. Some people also use poundo yam flour

      Reply

  7. is Cameroon pepper sold in places like tescos or only available in africa stores and i’m guessing i can use ground peppersoup spices for this soup

    Reply

    • Hi Hannah, I’m afraid, you can only find in African stores, and I mean in its original form. I hope that helps

      Reply

  8. Hello Dooney, first time here and so elated … don’t understand why i never saw this blog all this while. You could also try the urhobo white pepper soup, eaten with starch, this soup reminds me of it though

    Reply

  10. hello Dunni, i am glued to you. you are doing a great job. am getting married soon and with this blog, i cant be short of what to cook. and its an inter tribal marriage ibo-yoruba. thank you so much

    Reply

    • Congrats in advance and Happy Married life. I hope you use many recipes here to tantalise your husband

      Reply

  12. nice but i noticed there’s no okro. maybe its not compulsory but my mum always made ours with little okro

    Reply

  13. Hi Dooney,
    Its nice to see that other people cook with the Uyayak. Im igbo and so is my mum who makes pepper soup and and nsala with it … Cant spell the igbo name tho ( it sounds like a funny mixture of sounds)
    Great job on your blog….cant wait to get to naija and start showing mums my skills she will be shocked

    Reply

  15. Hello Dooneyrooney, I prepared this today using your method and it was absolutely delicious. The pot of white soup finished fiam, Choi. LOL. Quick question though, can the uyayak be reused. Mine still smells lovely as if it still has flavour inside it. After cooking the soup, I scooped it out, rinsed it with water and it’s in the fridge now. If it can be reused, please where is the best place to store it (fridge or kitchen cabinet). Thanks a whole lot. God bless you.

    P.S: I’m more or less a pro now in cooking buka stew. I’ve also made Mama Adeola Stew once. My crepes is also a favorite in my home (I make them at least 3 times a week, hehehheheee). All thanks to your very detailed pictorial posts. God bless you yanfu yanfu.

    Reply

  16. Dooney, I made this soup for my hubby….he couldn’t stop talking about it
    i used smoked chicken and it was heavenly, he has requested for it as he returns home for the Christmas holidays…LOL

    Reply

  17. This is indeed a beautiful meal. Tried cooking it recently but can’t seem to get it right, maybe that’s because in Delta State where I come from, no one seems to know what Uyayak or Aidan fruit is. Plz is there another name for Uyayak that traders in Delta will understand?

    Reply

  18. Great work u are doing here Dooney. This white soup fascinates me. I’ve tried making it once but it didn’t turn out quite well. It ended up being a little bitter and I dnt think itt was thick enof. My major challenge however is d fact that in Delta State where I live, no one seems to know what Uyayak or Aidan fruit is. Please is dere another name for Uyayak, somefin d average trader can understand? Then just how thick should d soup be? I look forward to hearing from u.

    Reply

    • Hi Theresa, show them the picture. In Delta, they use it very well. I don’t know the other name, but from the picture, they will get it immediately. I hope that helps

      Reply

  19. Hi dunni great job dearie….I just got married to man from Cross River.i am Yoruba, and I wanna make this white soup as a surprise! and trust me I dont want to mess up. i want it perfectly done. Hehehehe. My question is this…i didnt see where u added the cameroon pepper, was it blended together with the mixture? and how does it look pls? i dont mind if u can give me the local name its called here in Nigeria. Thanks dear.

    Reply

    • Add it while you are cooking the stock. It is called Cameroon pepper in nigerian markets or Nsukka pepper

      Reply

  20. I wish you knew how excited I am right now, I wanted to do something special for my boo on his birthday and I decided to make this soup, I was scared at trying being the first time but it turned out really well thanks to you and my boo who helped with the preparations. NB: I used utazi leaf instead of uziza leaf as suggested by the spice vendor, can you pls confirm this slight change. Thanks

    Reply

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Nigerian food, is bold, multi faceted, rich, colourful, spicy and with varied nuances, as you move from tribe to tribe. To describe Nigerian cooking, one would say it is fiercely traditional and somewhat dogmatic, but Dooney’s Kitchen proposes to simplify methods and steps that have been passed from generation to generation whilst also challenging some of these methods using Technology. The New Nigerian Cookery isn’t just about creating a New Nigerian Kitchen, or should we say a more technology aware Nigerian cooking experience, but it encompasses redefining recipes too. Come along on the journey, and welcome to one of the best online resources for Nigerian food.