Vegetable soup is one of the most popular soups among Nigerians, and it is cooked by all regions of the country. Every region has its own unique way of making vegetable soup. However, there are methods and ways to cook vegetable soup that make it outstanding and delicious. Here, we’ll present the ways to cook vegetable soup like a pro.
Before we go on to write about how to cook vegetable soup like a pro, it’s important you know the ingredients needed for vegetable soup. No matter the region or method you want to cook your vegetable soup, there are some similarities in ingredients for making this soup. So, the soup will need these ingredients regardless of the way you make it. What are these ingredients?
Ingredients for making Vegetable Soup
1. Dried Fish and/or smoked fish.
2. Meat
3. Palm oil/vegetable oil
4. Seasoning and salt
5. Pepper
6. Ugu (Fluted pumpkin leaves)
7. Waterleaf
8. Crayfish
9. Cocoyam for thickener (for some regions)
10. Oil bean (for some regions)
11. Seafood like clams, snails, and periwinkles (for some regions)
12. Spinach
The preparation time for cooking vegetable soup can take up to an hour and thirty minutes depending on the ingredients to be used. For a regular vegetable soup, it won’t take up to an hour to prepare things for cooking the soup. What takes time in the preparation for the soup cooking is the washing and slicing of vegetables, and in some rare cases, the preparation of cocoyam for thickening the soup.
Now, what are the special ways to cook vegetable soup?
5 Ways to Cook Vegetable Soup Like a Pro
1. Frying Method
The vegetable soup can be prepared by frying. This is when the process of cooking is started with the frying of the water leaves. Oil is poured into a pot on fire and allowed to steam for some seconds, and when the oil is hot enough, water leaves are poured into the oil. The frying of the oil is to remove the slimy moisture from the water leaves and to give it a fine taste.
After the slimy moisture in the water leaves must have dried up, the meat water is poured into the pot. The rest of the cooking is done by adding pepper, seasoning, salt, crayfish, and so on. Towards the end of the cooking, the ugu leaves, meat, and dried fish are added. The soup is stirred. It is then covered up to steam for a few minutes before removing it.
2. Thickener Vegetable Soup
In some parts of Igboland, thickener is added to vegetable soup to make it thicker and better. This is when cocoyams are prepared, boiled, and blended to become a paste before the proper cooking. When cooking starts, the meat water in a pot will have to be placed on fire to boil, and when it boils, oil should be added to the pot. After adding the oil, the cocoyam paste should be added to the pot and properly dissolved.
The dissolved cocoyam paste has to be boiled for some minutes until it is well dissolved. Going on from there, other ingredients are added like the crayfish, seasoning, salt, and so on. In this type of cooking, since there is no frying, it is usually ugu and spinach that are used as the vegetables.
3. Edikang Ikong
Edikang ikong is the vegetable soup of the Ibibio and Efik. It is prepared the same way the frying method of cooking vegetable soup is prepared, the only difference is that there is the use of lots of clams, crayfish, fish, snails, and periwinkles. There is also the use of lots of water leaves than ugu. There is no use of thickener.
Edikang ikong has been adjudged as one of the sweetest soups in Nigeria.
4. Tomato Recipe
This recipe is when tomato is added and fried before the addition of the water leaves. The tomato gives the vegetable soup a distinct taste. The tomato also adds or increases the nutritional benefits of the soup.
5. Bitterleaf/Utazi Recipe
This recipe is common among some Igbo; it is when a small amount of bitter leaf or utazi is added to the vegetable soup to give it a little bitter taste. These vegetables are not added so much so that the taste of the soup won’t be ruined. The major vegetables for the soup are still ugu, spinach, and water leaf.
This recipe goes well with the vegetable soup that contains cocoyam thickener.
Conclusion
These are the 5 ways to cook vegetable soup like a pro. You can try them out to enjoy a well-made vegetable soup with the right ingredients. Any of these 5 recipes can give you the taste you desire in a soup. When the soup is made, it can be enjoyed with any type of swallow like akpu, garri, amala, tuwo, semo, and so on.
