Edikang Ikong (Vegetable Soup)
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Edikang ikong, also written edikaikong or ekaikong, is the vegetable soup of the Efik and Ibibio people of southeastern Nigeria, and it is built on a deliberately generous quantity of two leaves. Ugu, the fluted pumpkin leaf, provides the flavour and the deep green. Waterleaf provides the moisture and the body, wilting down to release enough liquid that the soup largely cooks in its own juices. The proportion matters: this is a soup where the vegetables are the substance rather than a garnish stirred through at the end, and a properly made pot is dense with leaf. Around them sits an assortment that has given the dish its reputation, goat meat, dried fish, stockfish, shrimp or crayfish, periwinkle, palm oil. That density of protein is why it was long known as rich man's food, a soup that announced a household could afford it. It is now eaten across the country and well beyond it. It is the close relative of afang soup, which comes from the same people and follows the same structure. The distinction is entirely in the leaf: afang uses okazi, which is tough and faintly bitter, while edikang ikong uses ugu, which is softer and sweeter. Anyone from the region can tell them apart at a glance. It is served with any of the swallows.
Finding real waterleaf in Dallas is impossible abeg, so I used spinach and collard greens instead. The secret really is draining all the liquid out before adding it to the palm oil like you said. Used unshelled periwinkles from H Mart and it tasted just like back home in Calabar. My husband finished the entire pot with pounded yam!