Recettes

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Oha Soup

Oha soup is an Igbo soup from southeastern Nigeria, built on the leaves of Pterocarpus mildbraedii, an African evergreen tree. The leaves are seasonal, which makes the soup an occasion rather than an everyday dish, and there is no substitute that reproduces its flavour. The leaves are shredded by hand, never cut with a knife. The reason given is that a blade turns the soup bitter, and whether or not that holds chemically, the practice is observed universally and is one of the more widely known food rules in Igbo cooking. It is worth following on its own terms. Thickening is where families diverge. Cocoyam, pounded smooth after boiling, is the standard, though achi and ofor are both used and give slightly different bodies. The oil divides along geography: Anambra households use akwu, raw palm kernel oil, while Imo households use ordinary palm oil, and each considers its own version correct. Uziza leaves go in alongside the oha for a peppery counterpoint, and ogiri igbo, the fermented seasoning paste, supplies the deep savoury note the soup is built around.

Les mieux notées

1 hr 25 minMediumNigeria

Recette de Nympha · Africook

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Okro Soup

Okro soup is among the quickest Nigerian soups to make and among the most eaten. Okra is chopped, cooked briefly in a stock built on assorted meat, dried fish and crayfish, finished with palm oil, and taken off the heat while it is still green. The whole thing takes minutes once the vegetables are cut, which is the trade off: most of the work is chopping. Okra is native to Africa, with its origin generally placed in the Ethiopian highlands, and it has spread from there across the continent and well beyond it. The draw it produces, the viscous quality that thickens the soup, is the entire point in West African cooking and the thing that people elsewhere often try to eliminate. Here it is what makes the soup work with a swallow: it slides. The names change across Nigeria. Ila asepo among the Yoruba, okwuru among the Igbo, miyan kubewa in Hausa, otong among the Efik, and okro generally. Potash, called kaun, is traditional for increasing the draw and is now optional and somewhat contested, with many cooks leaving it out entirely. Used at all it must be used sparingly, since too much kills the elasticity it is meant to increase. It is eaten with eba, fufu, semo, amala or pounded yam.

Les mieux notées

25 minEasyNigeria

Recette de FoodChef · Africook

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Cassava Leaf Soup with Peanut Butter

Cassava leaf soup is eaten across West and Central Africa, and its names map the geography: saka saka and pondu in the Congo basin, and simply cassava leaf in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Wherever cassava is grown for its root, the leaves are eaten too, and a great many countries have arrived at some version of this independently. The West African version this recipe follows is built on groundnut. Peanut butter goes in with the leaves and palm oil, which gives a thicker, richer, nuttier result than the Central African versions that lean on palm oil alone. Smoked turkey, fish or chicken supplies the savoury depth, and scotch bonnet supplies the heat. The leaves themselves carry very little flavour, which is precisely why the dish works: they absorb whatever they are cooked with, so the palm oil, the groundnut and the smoked protein are doing all the talking. That also means the quality of those three decides the pot. It is served over rice, and the one non negotiable is cooking: cassava leaves must be thoroughly cooked, since they are not safe raw. Frozen leaves sold commercially have generally been blanched already, which is why this version cooks relatively briefly.

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1 hrEasyLiberia · West African

Recette de Debby · Africook

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Otong Soup

Otong soup is the Efik okra soup of Cross River State in south eastern Nigeria, and what separates it from every other okra soup in the country is the pairing of two vegetables rather than one. Okra provides the draw; ikong ubong, the pumpkin leaf known elsewhere as ugwu, provides the body and the green. Uziza leaf goes in for aroma. Okra soup is made across Nigeria and the names shift with the language: ila asepo among the Yoruba, okwuru among the Igbo, miyan kubewa in Hausa, and otong among the Efik. Each has its own emphasis, and the two vegetable combination is what marks this one as Efik rather than anything else. The technique is short and the timing is unforgiving. Okra goes in near the end, the pot is never covered after that point, and the soup comes off the heat while the okra is still green and resilient, because the retained heat keeps cooking it for another couple of minutes. Covered or overcooked, okra goes brown and loses its texture entirely. The Efik version is generous with seafood, taking in prawns, crab, mussels and smoked catfish alongside the assorted meat, which reflects a state built around water. It is eaten with ayan ekpang, the grated steamed cocoyam, or with any swallow.

Les mieux notées

55 minMediumNigeria

Recette de Jennifer · Africook

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