🌴How to cook White soup

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Nsala Soup is perfect for winter/cold rainy day because its spicy. It's a quickie on your menu table, you can count on it to save the day when you run out on soup a few days before the big soup day

Ingredients
  1. Cat Fish: 4 one-inch thick pieces
  2. Fresh or dry Utazi Leaves (Gongronema latifolium)
  3. Thickener: Raw White Yam / Yam Powder / Potato Puree
  4. Habanero peppers
  5. Salt (to taste)
  6. 1 handful crayfish
  7. 1 stock cube (seasoning)
  8. 1 Ogiri Okpehe (traditional seasoning)

Before you cook Nsala Soup
Cut and prepare your catfish. Place in bowl and pour very hot water on the fish. This toughens the skin of the fish so that the pieces do not disintegrate while cooking the soup. Leave for about 2 minutes and wash the fish with cold water. You should also wash off any slimy substance on the outer skin of the fish at this time.
Boil a few cubes of raw white yam. When soft, pound with a mortar and pestle till a smooth paste is formed, then set aside. You can substitute white yam with yam flour or potato puree for the thickening.
Wash and pound/blend the utazi leaves, the chilli pepper and the crayfish and set aside. Utazi is bitter in taste and only used for flavouring so one or two leaves should be enough especially when using the fresh leaves.

Cooking Directions

Place the catfish in a pot and pour enough water to cover the fish. Add the seasoning and cook adequately. Feel free to add beef and dry fish to this soup recipe.
When the catfish is almost cooked, add the crayfish, pepper and utazi leaves blends. Also add the yam paste in small lumps and salt to taste.

Note: Catfish is what makes Nsala soup what it is, giving it the unique taste that it has so it is essential to this recipe. The only other fish that I have found to be close to Cat fish as regards to this recipe is Conger Eel.
Cover the pot and allow the contents to cook at high heat till all the yam paste have dissolved. While cooking, if you think that the yam paste will make the soup too thick, you can remove some that are yet to dissolve.


The Nigerian Nsala Soup is ready to be served with Eba (Garri), Semolina, Amala, Pounded Yam etc.

In the next post we'll learnt the medicinal aspect of Utazi: the food medicine.

Article credit: All Nigerian Recipes

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