Should I add more?
Nigerian soups’ status is an elite one – no chance for mid tastes, mismatched combos, or anything that slaps less than it should.
Even with these requirements, there are fellas from the fruit kingdom that still dare to join the party and for their bravado, they have earned the right to be showcased by the tribe.
1. Garden Egg Soup – Garden Egg
As a fruit, the garden egg does not in any way rank as one of the sweet ones but if you think it will be licking the feet of other soups because of that, then you are in for a surprise.
As a matter of fact, once you grind it into a soft paste and sauce it up to become garden egg soup – it grows wings and flies first class with the big girls of the carb class. It is perfect with rice or yam.
2. Ogbono Soup – Bush Mango
Ogbono seed is found in a round and yellow fruit called bush mango or African mango.
Who would have imagined the Queen bee of ‘draw soup’ – Ogbono, reporting for duty from the quarters of bush mango?🌝
3. Banga Soup – Palm Fruits
From the thrashing, boiling, and low steaming of palm nut fruit emerges the delightful Banga soup.
The process of preparing Banga from palm fruit is very similar to when extracting palm oil – except for the part where a Banga is left to cook on low heat so it can stick together before bombarding it with fish and sauce.
Banga is best served hot with rice, eba, fufu and starch.
4. Rivers State Soup – Ukwa
Rivers state soup is made from Ukwa a.k.a African breadfruit- feels a lot like Chinua Achebe in here.
Well, Ukwa soup is made by cooking breadfruit with potash for easy softening, draining the water, and adding parsley and corn.
Apart from being eaten as a fruit, it can be made into porridge or roasted as a snack.
5. Groundnut Soup – Groundnut
It is made mostly by grinding spoilt groundnuts and sometimes the good ones into a paste, mixing it up with sauce and orisirisi.
Not all edibles can come back from a state of ruin and sourness to still attain the lofty height of a Nigerian soup. A round of applause for groundnuts.
#SabiChow dishes light servings of everything food and drinks. This edition highlights five Nigerian soups that are made from fruits or nuts.
