4 mn read

Nsala Soup

Nsala soup (white soup) is one of the most delicious of all Nigerian soups, this year alone I have made and eaten more of it than any other.

Ofe nsala, as we call it, is a delicacy in Igboland.

I enjoy lots of the foods in Nigeria but there are quite some of them that kinda tastes better and more delicious to me. 😀

Melon soup (ofe egusi) for instance is like the number one for me.

The reason is that… sometimes we like to eat a combination of two or more different soups in our home and egusi blends perfectly with most of the soups in Nigeria, sometimes I even blend with nsala soup (also called white soup).

The image below is a combination of both white soup and eba

It is the only soup in Nigeria that is made without palm oil… just like pepper soup and ewedu soup, the use of palm oil is not necessary.

You can use plain beef or assorted meat for this soup. I used chicken

It is very popular in the south and eastern part of Nigeria, the efiks and Igbos are the top makers and consumers of this delicious soup.

So if you are dating or married to a man from the south or eastern part of Nigeria, you can try giving him a meal of pounded yam and ofe nsala tonight.

Below are the ingredients for nsala, the ingredients below would serve about five persons for three consecutive times.

Soups in Nigeria can be refrigerated for up to two weeks, most times it is better to make lots of soups and then refrigerate the remainder.

White Soup Ingredients

Serving 12

Preparation time: 80 minutes

Yam (six to eight slices…baby fist size)
Ground crayfish (1 cup)
3 seasoning cubes
1 teaspoon Uziza seeds
1 cup sliced uziza leaves
Dried or smoked fish (two medium sizes)
Snails (Optional)
1.3KG / 3lb Chicken
Small dawadawa
handful sliced utazi leaves
Salt and Pepper to taste.

Here are some of the ingredients used for this soup.

You might wanna start by peeling and boiling the yam, this should be pounded with a mortar and pestle.

Pounded yam serves as the thickener for nsala soup

Combine the crayfish, uziza seeds, dawadawa, and grind to a powder.
Wash and slice the leaves.

You can wash snails with lemon/line juice to remove the slimy fluid, although, you would be amazed to learn that there are people in Nigeria that cooks snails with the slimy fluids, sometimes without even removing the shell.

I am talking about a delicious Ijaw Recipe – Keke Fieye

Parboil the chicken with all the necessary ingredients, season with 2 stock/seasoning cubes, a teaspoon of salt, half a cup of sliced onions, and half a teaspoon of ginger/garlic.

You can see the video below.

I made this soup with chicken, alternatively, you could use a combination of different parts of cow meat – assorted meat.

Parboil the meat for about 7 minutes… until it is soft enough for consumption then you can go ahead and add the hot-water-washed dry fish. This could be added earlier if you are using a strong dry fish like mangala.

Add about 3 cups of cold or boiled water.

The amount of water for nsala soup depends on the ingredients/thickener available and the number of people that you are making the soup for.

Boil the combination for another 7-10 minutes until they are both soft for consumption then go ahead and add the ground crayfish/uziza seed/dawadawa combination, and ground red pepper (pls taste before adding red pepper, the uziza seeds are also very pepperish).

Your pot should be looking like this.

Taste your soup at this time and add a seasoning cube and salt to improve the taste if it doesn’t taste nice yet.

Add the pounded yam.

It should look like this.

You can add half and watch the soup for the next five minutes if it is not thick enough you can add a little more; I just don’t like the soup to be very thick. I like a very light nsala soup, it tastes better that way.

Once your white soup is thick enough and the pounded yams are well dissolved.

You can now go ahead and add the sliced uziza and utazi leaves. The utazi should be used sparingly for white soup; the reason is just to add a faint bitter taste.