The Ofe Nsala (White Soup)
Nsala soup, or white soup as it is known among Nigerians, is a popular dish in the eastern tribes and riverine areas of the country. This soup is unique in that it is prepared without the use of palm oil. This soup’s main ingredients are yam and catfish. However, you can cook with any other protein of your choice.
Ofe nsala is comparable to the Efik soup Afia
Efere, however it differs from Nsala because to the additional condiments.
However, in this article, we’ll show you how to make Nsala soup using goat meat
and catfish.
Cook Time 1 hour 47 minutes
Preparation:
The first step is to peel, wash, and boil the yam cubes. Drain the yam slices after 10 minutes and pound with a mortar and pestle until smooth. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, you can combine or process the boiling yam cubes with a little water until a smooth paste forms. (You can reuse the water from the yam cooking.)
The crushed yam acts as a thickening for the soup; once it’s finished, set it aside. After that, wash the goat flesh and season it with onions, a seasoning cube, and salt. Allow for at least thirty minutes of parboiling time. Wash the dried fish in a bowl while the beef is parboiling. Remove the entrails while washing to avoid eating the bitter bile. After washing the fish, add it in with the parboiled meat.
After the proteins in the soup have softened, the next step is to add the amount of water required to produce the soup. The amount of water you use is determined by the number of ingredients you have and how many people will be eating.
While the stock (a mixture of fish, meat, and water) is heating up, season with pepper and thickener (Pounded yam). Make sure the thickener dissolves in the stock water. This is to avoid lumps in the soup when eating it.
While the stock (a mixture of fish, meat, and water) is heating up, season with pepper and thickener (Pounded yam). Make sure the thickener dissolves in the stock water. This is done to avoid lumps while eating the soup. After 10 minutes, add the ground Uziza seeds and allow to simmer for another 10 minutes.
Wash the Utazi leaves; they should be in small quantity because they are bitter. Chop the Utazi leaves.
Add the ground crayfish and Utazi leaves, leave to boil for 2 minutes, then turn off the light.
Your Nsala soup is ready to be eaten. You can either eat it with semolina or fufu.
Moving on, this is the procedure for cooking Nsala soup with various others types of proteins. Though, there might be few differences here and there.