Hi guys! I'm starting our recipe corner this year sharing and celebrating one of the tastiest and authentic soups to come out of Nigeria. ‘Banga Soup’ also known as Ofe Akwu, is originally from the southern part of Nigeria but has been imbibed by Nigerians all over the country and can be found almost in any part of the country you visit but with little variations.
I originally did this post as a guest post for Eya's blog ,
at that time I didn't know the names of the spices which in my opinion gives this soup its unique aroma and taste, the readers on that blog graciously schooled
me on the various names of the spices.
The main Ingredient used in making the soup is the Palm kernel, which comes from a plant!...….. and that makes it a vegetable right? just kidding :) .
For those of you, like me who worry about the bad health rap palm
kernel may have received, I conducted a little research, based on my findings, there is a sort of disagreement and mixed results on
the nutritive benefits/ dangers of palm kernel.
While palm kernal oil is said to be high in saturated vegetable
fat, it’s been found to have no cholesterol, and has been accepted to be a
natural replacement for hydrogenated vegetable oils which are high in trans fat
according to a 2010, report published by the journal of the American college of nutrition.
I always say, everything is good in moderation, so
invariably you ultimately control how good or bad a food will be to your body, therefore... on to our deliciously Nigerian recipe!
Ingredients
Palm kernel nuts Or commercially packed kernel oil in a can
Beef
Dried Fish
Stock Fish (optional)
Fresh Peppers
Chopped Onions
Ground Crayfish
Salt
Knorr cubes
Banga Spices - I use four of them namely, Oburunbebe
the stick, Otaiko tiny black flat seed,
Rogejie the tiny brown seed, dried
bitter leaves or Obeletete,
Palm Kernal in its original state and commercially packaged
Sorry guys, washed my Palm kernel before I realized I hadn't taken a photo in its raw state
Beef
Cooked Stock
Fish and beef
Dried
Fish
Fresh
Peppers ( You can use dry ground pepper, I prefer the fresh taste I get from using a
mix of roughly ground fresh red and yellow peppers)
Banga
Spices I use 4 of them namely Oburunbebe stick, Otaiko the tiny black flat seeds,
Rogejie the tiny brown seeds, dried
bitter leaves or Obeletete. Grind
the two seeds and crush the stick.
Alternatively you can chose to buy the already ground one,
just ask the market women for ground banga spices they would sort you out, although I prefer the flavours of the whole
spices.
 |
The four Banga Spices I use Already ground spices the alternative to whole spices |
Crushed
Banga stick
METHOD
1.
Season and boil beef with your stock fish
2.
Boil your palm kernel until soft, then pound in
a mortar to squash but not hard enough to crack the nuts. Add some water and squeeze
palm kernel to get the oil out, pour washed kernel into a sieve to separate
palm oil from the husk of the nuts. Keep adding water and washing out oil until
all the oil is out of the palm husk.
 |
| Washed and boiling palm kernal |
3.
Pour washed oil in a pot, place on the fire and allow to
boil for about 30mins then add chopped onion, ground pepper and the stick (I
usually crush my stick in a mortar to release the flavours before adding to the
boiling soup), then cook for a further 15mins.
 |
| Adding the stick |
 |
| Adding ground pepper and Onion |
4.
Add your beef, stock fish and dried fish to
boiling soup, depending on how dry your fish is, mine was quite dry so I put it
at this stage. If your fish is not very dry
then you can wait until towards the end of the cooking to add it so there can
still be some whole chunks. If using fresh
fish, which is fantabolous with banga soup you also add that towards the
end of cooking so it doesn’t break up into tiny bits completely. Allow to cook again for another 10mins.
 |
| Banga soup with all the spices added |
5. Add your ground spices, EXCEPT the dried bitter leaves or Obeletete . At this stage you would notice your Banga soup is getting thicker and that wonderful banga aroma! (thanks to its unique spices) would have filled your whole house, Allow to simmer for further 10mins. Then Add your knorr cubes and salt to taste, ground crayfish and dried bitter leaves allow to simmer for 5mins and…… that’s all!
 |
| Banga soup going through the final simmering with all ingredients added |
Voila! ready! Serve with some nice starch, eba, pounded yam or Fufu *said in an American accent* :).
Notes : The cooking time will vary depending on how watery you wash your palm kernel nuts. It is
usually shorter with canned kernel nut (which is quite convenient.) BUT nothing beats the taste of fresh kernel.
The aim of cooking this long is to take off the oily taste of the nuts and to
get a slightly thick soup, whatever cooking duration gives you this consistency
is fine.
Tried it? let me know what you did differently and how it came out.
Bon Apetit!
