Bitter leaf Soup(Ofe Onugbu) Recipe

Bitter leaf soup(ofe onugbu) is one of my favorite soups.

The aromatic flavor of the bitter leaf makes me always asking for more. Is a soup I often cook that never gets me bored .

I meant I can eat bitter soup(ofe onugbu) as a many times in a day and never get bored with it , that doesn’t mean I eat swallow as many times in a day lol! I enjoy more of the soup.

Bitter leaf soup(ofe onugbu) is a  Nigerian soup widely eaten by the Igbos, mainly the Anambras.

This is one of the soup they don’t do without when planning events.

In every Anambra event, any kind of event at all, onugbu soup is always the number one soup on the list lol!

Other soup that prepared with bitter leaf are ogbono soup, okro etc.

I’m not from Anambra, but fortunate to have friends from there, who taught me how to nail this finger licking soup.

I got so interested to learn how to cook the soup because I so much enjoy it. The love I have for bitter leaf soup  made a perfect onugbu soup cook.

One of my Anambra friends visited me, I intentionally made bitter leaf soup reason was that twas their native soup, she enjoyed it.

She insisted I  gave her my recipe, that she had never made the onugbu soup as good as mine despite twas their native soup.

Truly the onugbu soup was second to none, twas indeed  finger licking.

Bitter leaf which is the key ingredient has a whole lot of health benefits.

Health benefits of bitter leaf

• It helps in the prevention of cancer
• It helps in the regulation of blood sugar
• It helps in fighting bacteria
• It helps in weight management
• It nourishes the skin,which in turn makes the skin look young and radiant.

Bitter leaf washed for cooking bitter leaf  soup is first pick and set under the sun or washed with hot water to avoid breaking and remain long and squeezed.

The very tiny broken ones don’t pass through the sunning process, once gotten fresh, is squeezed and washed immediately, thereby resulting to those washed tiny bitter leaves best for making egusi soup.

You get the feel of the  long and squeezed bitter leaf when used to prepare ofe Onugbu.

List of Ingredients

• Water for cooking
• 10 medium sized cow meat
• 7 medium sized cow skin
• 1 medium stock fish head
• 5 medium sized stock fish soft flesh(also known as flex,you can also use cod)
• 2 medium sized dry fish( Mangala, ebe- iyi, asa, arira etc )
• 3 seasoning cube
• 1 medium sized onioin
• Salt to taste
• 3 tablespoons of ground crayfish
• Red bonnet pepper as desired
• 1 tablespoonful ogiri
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ehuru seed
• 3 cooking spoons palm oil
• 4 tablespoons achi (Thickner. You can also use cocoyam, yam or ofo as your thickner)
• Bitter leaf as desired

Note; for bitter soup, the bitter leaf should be enough in the soup, for you to  get the feel of the bitter soup.

Preparation

1. Wash the cow skin, meat, stock fish,dry fish,flex and set aside in separate plates

2. Chop the onion

3. Blend pepper, ehuru, crayfish, achi and set aside in  separate plates

4. Wash of the bitter taste in the bitter leaf and set aside

Cooking Procedure

 1. In an empty pot,put the washed cow skin and boil and boil for 10 minutes .if you notice is too hard,If its not hard,skip this process please.

2. In another empty pot,put the washed meat,add the chopped onion,seasoning cube,and little salt and allow to steam for 5 minutes

3. Add little water to the meat stock then add the stock fish head,leave to cook for 5 minutes

4. Add the water for cooking,add flex and half cooked cow skin ,dry fish and leave to for 10 minutes

5. Add the ground crayfish, pepper, ehuru and ogiri, stir leave to boil for 5 minutes

6. Add the palm oil,leave to boil for 2 minutes

7. Add the achi, leave until the soup thickens, if too thick add more water to your desired thickness

8. Add the bitter leaf , stir and leave the soup to boil for 2 minutes.

The pot of bitter leaf soup is ready!

Send it down with any swallow of choice

I enjoy mine with fufu.

Don’t forget to leave a comment.

Have a wonderful day!

Ada.