Vegetable soup made with love🍲

This is one of my all time favorite to make. It’s very easy to whip up and it’s not time consuming. I always enjoy making this for my family & close friends.

It’s popularly known as ‘Efo riro’ in Nigeria. It’s a Yoruba dish that’s made with leaves like spinach, coupled with scotch bonnets, onions and lots of protein.

Let’s pretend that I’m married to a Yoruba man and he asked that I make him quick vegetable soup for him and the boys to come over and eat.😁 Here’s how I went about it;

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup of Palm Oil • 2pcs of Smoked Cat fish • Half kilo of Gizzard • 1 Cow skin(ponmo) • Spinach • 2 tablespoons of Crayfish • 8 Scotch bonnets, 1 Onions & 5 tomatoes • 1 tablespoon of Locust beans(Iru)

This recipe is a straightforward one and easy to make. You almost can’t go wrong with this meal if every step is done appropriately. Beef, chicken, turkey & goat meat are also choice proteins for this vegetable soup. The more, the merrier😁.

MEAL PREP

I washed my ponmo and cut them into bits my preferred size. It can be bigger or even smaller.

Next I soaked my spinach in a clean water and added little salt to wash. I rinsed and repeated for about three times as this helps with the removal of sand. I’ve seen a lot of people also boil their spinach in hot water, but i prefer my spinach still looking green so i stick to my method.

I also thoroughly washed the locust beans and smoked catfish and then blended my pepper mix to complete my prep.

RECIPE

I washed, seasoned and parboiled the gizzard for about 10 minutes until very tender.

Next I set out a cooking pan, poured in the red oil, onions & locust beans. Building flavors is very important during this step.

I poured in my pepper mix and let it fry for about 5 minutes.

Next, I went in with the protein. The smoked catfish fish and ponmo first as it’s tougher and so it cooks well and tender enough.

After 10 minutes of cooking, I added the gizzard and the stock to the mix. I let this cook for 5 extra minutes.

I added just an extra cube of seasoning because of the gizzard stock. Next, I went in with my blended cray fish. This gives extra extra flavor.

The aroma at this point already filled up the room and my soup was 3 minutes away from being ready to consume.

For the final step, I went in with my properly washed spinach leaves and let it steam for 3-5minutes. I cooked mine for about 3 minutes because I enjoy it crunchy and still very much green. Overcooking it for a longer period makes it too soft. For this step, you don’t necessarily need to add water if you’re curious as to why i didn’t mention adding water. The spinach leaves when steamed on low heat produces enough water for it to cook itself.

I stirred a bit and checked if my soup was well seasoned. It came out looking really good and it tastes even better.

My imaginary husband and his boys finally came home and I served them with a side of both rice and semo. They absolutely loved their meal and gave me all the accolades🤭

It’s one of the beauty of the vegetable soup. It’s not only really healthy, it’s also versatile. You can have it with a side of rice or a main dish like Semo, Eba or pounded yam. Some people eat it with boiled white pasta or boiled yam. The fun part is that it can be eaten alone. It aids digestion and it helps with constipation. Very nutritious and rich with calcium.

I’ll like to know if you’ll be trying out this recipe, what you would prefer to have it with.

For my Naija people🙃, team Rice or team Swallow? Please let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading💗

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