Greatings my fellow hivians, hope we are all doing great today and staying safe!
Today I will be discussing Ogbono Soup as one of the traditional dish eaten regularly in my tribe.
I am from Enugu State Nigeria and ever since my childhood stage, I have seen Ogbono Soup leading in so many traditional events being held in my town. These events ranges from New Yam Festival, Naming ceremony, Ofala, Our village Day and so on. In all of these events , there is always food and drinks to grace the occasion and Ogbono Soup is usually number one soup amidst other food we use in my tribe.
It can be served with pounded yam (this is mostly used in my tribe), semovita, garri, fufu etc.
Ogbono Soup is prepared using Ogbono seeds as seen below 👇
The botanical name of Ogbono is Irvingia gabonensis and it's also known as the wild African Mango or the bush Mango. It has an alternative name also as "Draw Soup" because of its dawy nature after prepations, however it's an easy going soup to many including children.
INGREDIENTS FOR PREPARING OGBONO SOUP:
- Ogbono seeds
- Red oil
- Stock fish
- Dried fish
- Maggie seasoning
- Okpei (local maggie)
- Salt
- Crayfish
- Meat of any choice
- Vegetable (optional)
- Fresh pepper
Find below the picture of some of the ingredients mentioned above.
Step by step of preparing Ogbono Soup
The first step to take is to cook any choice of meat you bought for the soup. It can be Chicken, cow meat, fish, goat meat etc. Spice up the meat and cook till it's done.
Note: You can wash your stock fish and dried fish very well using salt and then add it inside your boiling meat just like 10 mins before the meat is done so they can be softened as well.
Now that you are done with boiling your proteins, remove the meats from the pot leaving only the stock (meat water) . Then add more water if necessary, allow to boil, blend your Ogbono seeds, mix it with red oil until it turns paste and then pour the mixture inside your boiling pot. After about 2 to 3mins, stir it very well and start adding other ingredients like the blended pepper and crayfish, maggie, salt. At this point, cover your pot and allow to cook for about 5minutes. Then add your cooked meat , dried and stock fish together, boil for another 3minutes, taste for salt and other ingredients and if okay, turn off your gas and food is ready! You can serve with semovita as I did last weekend when I made the above Ogbono Soup resting in my freezer in the picture above!
Health benefits of Ogbono Soup
Ogbono seeds are considered to be nuts and nuts are good source of proteins and healthy fats. Other ingredients found inside Ogbono Soup like the different fishes stated above also gives proteins to the body. The pounded yam or semovita used in eating the soup also gives carbohydrates to our body and many more benefits.
In conclusion, Ogbono Soup is a very good soup and only a taste of it will convince you if you haven't tasted it before, it's also doesn't take much time in preparing and most children that doesn't like eating swallow eats it with ogbono soup. Adding vegetable to it is also a plus!
If you made it up to this point reading this piece, many thanks to you!!!
Remember to keep staying positive and be happy 😊❣️💕.
PN: *All pictures are mine taken with my cell phone unless stated otherwise