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nigerian afang soup.
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5 from 4 votes

Afang Soup

Afang Soup! This delicious, hearty and loaded comforting soup is made with okazi leaves and waterleaf. It is popularly eaten in Nigeria with pounded yam and best served warm. Here is my take on how to cook Nigerian Afang soup.
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Total Time40 minutes
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Nigerian
Keyword: afang soup, afang soup recipe, how to make afang soup
Servings: 6
Author: Ajoke

Ingredients

  • 200 g Okazi leaves
  • 400 g water leaves substitute with baby spinach
  • Cow foot a few pieces
  • 500 g goat meat
  • 2 cups chopped smoked ponmo
  • 100 g dried Catfish fillets or any other smoked fish
  • Salt to taste
  • Seasoning cubes 4 bouillon cubes such as knorr, maggi or any other of choice
  • 2 Scotch bonnet pepper ata rodo
  • ½ cup Palm oil
  • 1 cup periwinkles optional

Instructions

  • Prep the ingredients: Chop spinach, rinse and set aside, pound or chop scotch bonnet pepper and set aside
  • Place a pan on medium heat, add washed goat meat, salt, 2 seasoning cubes and onions and bring to boil till soft. When the meat is almost well done, add diced ponmo and dried catfish and bring to boil for another 5 minutes. You don’t need too much water to cook Afang soup, so if your stock is much, reduce it by half and add more to the soup if need be
  • Once you are happy with how tender the meat, ponmo and dried fish are, add palm oil and bring to boil for about 5 minutes
  • Add chopped ata rodo (pepper), ground crayfish and periwinkles (if using) to the sauce and continue to cook on medium-low heat for another 3-5 minutes.
  • Followed by pounded okazi leaves, add it to the sauce and continue for another 10-15 minutes. Add the remaining seasoning cubes and salt if need be but you might not need it if stock is well seasoned and the flavour from the smoked catfish and ponmo would have infused in the soup.
  • If you have pounded the okazi, you may not need to cook for that long. OKAZI LEAF IS STRONG AND CHEWABLE and it needs to be soft to be enjoyed. To be honest with you, even after blending mine, I still found it a bit chewy but I enjoyed every single bit of it.
    Traditionally, you add water leaves to the soup before okazi leaves but I found okazi leaves strong and chewy hence my way of cooking it.
  • Add waterleaves in this case chopped spinach to the soup, stir to combine and cook for another 5 minutes. Take it off the heat and serve with swallow of choice

Notes

Okazi leaves (also called afang leaves) is strong and chewable and I guess that is why it is pounded before using. I didn’t pound mine, instead, I pulsed it in my food processor to break it down a bit. Alternatively, bring to boil for about 15 minutes before use.