The core, the soul, the heartbeat of Nigerian food is in its soups. As a Newbie to Nigerian cooking, you need to earn your foodie stripes by mastering how to cook Nigerian Soups. As with any cuisine from around the world, there are simple and complex dishes. Nigerian cooking is no different, but with newbies such as you, I have selected the simplest of Nigerian soups to sink your teeth into, pun intended. These recipes are easy, basic and will get you started in creating delicious Nigerian Soups you will be very proud to present. I also took into consideration sourcing ingredients. Don’t worry, you don’t have to traipse around your part of the world looking for select food stores, with the soups you will see below, the ingredients can be easily sourced in your local supermarkets. So, if you’ve made the decision to investigate food from the African Continent, or you have recently started a job in Nigeria, or you are dating/married to Nigerian and you would like to surprise him/her, or you were born and raised out of Nigeria, with not that much exposure to Nigerian food, this is for you
Efo Riro – ‘Efo’ means vegetable in Yoruba language. ‘Riro’ means to turn. Efo Riro is a simple and quick Vegetable soup which is made by tossing chopped vegetables in a rich fried red bell pepper and chilli sauce and leaving the vegetables to steam and absorb the flavour of the sauce. Efo riro can be made with a combination of meat and smoked fish. Chicken if you prefer. This is one of the simplest of Nigerian Soups to cook, and you really can’t get it wrong if you pay attention. From start to finish, if you have done your prep work ahead of time, this soup should take under 30 minutes.
Traditionally Efo Riro is made with a Vegetable called Shoko. If you are an expatriate living in Nigeria, especially Lagos, this vegetable is easy to source from big markets or smaller food shops on the Island or Mainland. If you live outside of Nigeria, very good alternatives are Spinach, Collard greens and Kale. Efo Riro has an earthy flavour which comes from the use of ground dried crayfish and smoked fish. If you live in Nigeria, these are easy to source but for newbies who live outside of Nigeria, seafood can still give you that extra punch of flavour. Use smoked mackerel (or any other smoked fish variety you can find) and fresh seafood like crabs, tiger prawns or shrimp and meaty fish like Monkfish or Cod. You would miss nothing, trust me. Another key ingredient is Palm oil. Palm oil is very easy to buy online
You will need
2 bunches of Kale
1 bunch of Spinach
1 piece of Tatashe – red bell pepper
2 – 3 pieces of ata rodo – scotch bonnet/habanero pepper
Palm Oil
Assorted Meats
shredded stockfish and smoked fish
Palm Oil
Crayfish
chopped red onions
Beef Stock
Salt Seasoning cubes
Iru
Another easy starter soups to try Egusi. Egusi is made using flat, off white seeds which look very similar to Pumpkin seeds. To cook Egusi, you mill into a fine powder. Already scratching your head on where to find Egusi, not to worry, dried pumpkin seeds and almonds with the skin off are very good alternatives. The picture of Egusi below was courtesy of Eva Eneremadu. She is a Polish woman married to a Nigerian. Eva is an ideal candidate for this section of the site. Versatile cook that she is, decided to substitute Egusi, which costs the earth in Poland, for Almonds, and as you can see below, it looks amazing and really like Egusi Soup
Here is my picture of Egusi soup, see the similarities? Well here is the recipe
Other simple doups like groundnut soup, use unsweetened peanut butter
okra soup – use just picture
So, now you have been given a Nigerian Soup Lesson 101. What are you waiting for, get cooking. If you need more inspiration, click on the Nigerian soups category for more recipes
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