This post is in response to a Contest by 
Theme: Cultural Cuisine
Tell us about about a specific dish from a particular culture, preferably your own, that gou are familiar with and passionate about. Explain why you selected that particular dish and what is its significance. If you like you can also share its recipe with us.
Onugbu Soup is a very special traditional dish of my people. "Onugbu" means bitterness and that's where the soup gets the name. It's known for its unique bitter flavour and is prepared by adding bitter leaves from the plant(Vernonia amygdalina), a blend of cocoyam and so many other ingredients.
Grandma made me love this Soup by the way she prepared it back then and it has become one of my favourites since then.
It is very significant because of its flavour and its many benefits;
~Fights prostate cancer.
~Treats malaria.
~Treats diabetes.
~Treats tuberculosis.
~Treats stomach ache.
~Treats typhoid.
~Lowers hypertension.
~Treats infertility.
These are just a few and I do not need any scientific evidence to validate its efficacy because in all the years I lived with my Grandma, she was hardly sick. She was very strong and eventually lived to be ninety, without ever taking any form of conventional medications (infact she threw away every drug her children ever bought her). For every food she consumed, she would speak of the health benefits to the human body and in accuracy, researches ongoing have proven most of them to be true.
It's also believed that this leave was responsible for the long life span of the ancient Africans and also the reason why the men are able to fulfill all their duties of keeping a harem.
"That leave is for malaria, that one is for cough and cold and that one over there, enhances fertility"....and on and on she would go, pointing at the various leaves as we pass by them. Most of them were tucked away in the back of my mind and was considered not too useful until now... See now how everyone suddenly realizes that we need to go back to the (our) Roots (and......to the plants).
This bitter leaf and its Soup was one of her most frequently used herbal remedies.
I would walk you through the step by step process of making this delicious soup...
You would be needing the following ingredients;
~200 g washed bitter leaf.
~5 table spoons of oil.
~5 small corm cocoyams(cooked and pounded with palm oil).
~Assorted meat.
~Assorted fish.
~Dried stock fish.
~Smoked fish.
~Medium sized onion(chopped).
~2 table spoons ground chilli pepper.
~3 table spoons ground crayfish.
~2 stock cubes.
~1tea spoon "Ogiri"(traditional seasoning made from fermented melon seeds or locust beans).
~ Salt to taste.
The bitter leaves must be washed in water, squeezed and drained to remove at least 90% of the bitterness.
Now let's get down to preparing Onugbu Soup;
This should serve four persons.
~Place the assorted meats, assorted fish, dried stock fish and smoked fish into a pot. Season with the chopped onion, a little salt, 1 table spoon of the ground chili pepper and 2 table spoons of the ground crayfish. Pour water to the level of the meats and fish and cook until tender(making sure to add more water when needed).
~Once the fish and meats are tender, add the palm oil and cook until the raw taste has disappeared.
~Add the remaining ground chilli pepper, crayfish, bitter leaves, "ogiri", and the pounded cocoyam. Cook for a few minutes until thickened; then add the stock cubes; then cook for about 5 more minutes and that's it.This soup is enjoyed with "swallow" (Fufu or Eba).
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