VEGETABLE SOUP KNOWN AS EDIKANG IKONG SOUP

This famous Nigerian soup is indigenous to the Efiks, people from Akwa Ibom and Cross Rivers state of Nigeria. It is a very popular soup in Cameron, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Ghana and indeed many West African and African Countries amongst lovers of good and healthy food for it is pretty much nutritious and nourishing (and yea, I heard it is a way to a man’s heart) lol.

Vegetable soup, prepared from a blend of pumpkin leaves, water leaves, periwinkles, snails, fish and assorted meat.

For people outside Nigeria who can’t get access to these leaves, you can use:

 Normal Frozen Spinach,

 Ground Frozen Spinach,

Lamb's Lettuce (Canonigos in Spanish).

 Defrost the frozen spinach, cut the normal frozen one into tiny pieces and mix with the ground frozen spinach. Wring out the water from these and add them when I add the pumpkin leaves during cooking.

Pick, wash and cut the Lamb's Lettuce into tiny pieces. Then add them when I add the water leaves during the cooking.

Ingredients:

     1kg Pumpkin leaves

     500g Water leaves

     600g Beef/shaki/cowleg or any protein of your choice, and Dry fish

     Pepper

     Ground Crayfish: Also called crawfish or crawdads

     200ml Palm oil

     Salt

     Periwinkle - 1 cup or substitute with shrimps

     2 medium bulbs onions

     3-4 Stock cubes (maggi/ knorr)

Before you start cooking:

   1.  Wash and cut the pumpkin and water leaves into tiny pieces. Put them in separate sieves to drain out all the water as much as possible.

   2. Cook the beef/shaki/cowleg with 1 bulb of diced onions and 3 Maggi / Knorr cube and

when it is half way done, include the dry fish into same pot and allow to cook.

 Dice the 1bulb of onions left and set aside 

Method of Cooking :

   When the meat is done, remove the meat from the pot and leave only the stock.* make sure the stock remaining in the pot is of little quantity.

Add the diced onions

Add a generous amount of palm oil,

 Add the crayfish/crawfish or crawdads

 Add the pepper and leave to boil for about 15 minutes.

   2. Add the periwinkle or if non shrimps can be used  

    Add the water leaves and

  Leave it to cook for 5 minutes. (You have to cook for less time at this stage so that the water leaves are not over-cooked).

   3. Now pour the meat and stockfish  back into the pot, add the pumpkin leaves and the remaining 1 cube of maggi and salt to taste.

Stir the contents of the pot very well and reduce the heat. Allow to cook with low heat for 5 minutes then turn off the light.

Your vegetable soup has been successfully cooked and ready to eat with:

   Boiled white rice

   Smoothly ground wheat flour

   Smoothly ground dried black or unripe plantain or

   Pounded yam.

Method of making the wheat flour or black unripe plantain:

Pour 1 liter of water in a small pot if making for one person,

 allow to boil,

 pour the smoothly ground wheat or plaintain flour and continuously stair till it binds smoothly and without seeds. Then it is ready to be eaten with your home made vegetable soup.

Hints:

*vegetable soup is highly nutritious, reason being that the Leaf vegetables are typically low in calories, low in fat, high in protein per calorie, high in dietary fiber, high in iron and calcium, and very high in phytochemicals such as vitamin C, carotenoids, lutein, magnesium as well as vitamin K.( Reason why the soup should not be over cooked so it does not lose its nutrients).

* Wheat flour contains diversity of minerals, vitamins and fats (lipids). With a small amount of animal or legume protein added, a wheat-based meal is highly nutritious.

 

*Plantain flour: Is good for people watching their weight.