White soup, or Ofe Nsala, is a popular Nigerian recipe that originated in the Igbo tribe. There is a different white soup recipe in every family, but there is also the traditional way to make it. Find out how to cook Nigerian white soup right now!
Find high quality and affordable ingredients for your cooking on Jiji
1. Ingredients for white soup
Traditionally, when you’re thinking about how to prepare white soup, you’re thinking about fish as the main protein, and that’s exactly what this recipe for white soup features. The ingredients for Nigerian white soup include:
- Fresh fish like catfish – 1 medium-sized
- Assorted meat (optional) – 500g
- Yam – 4 medium slices
- Stockfish – 2 pieces
- Smoked fish – 1
- Crayfish – 1tbsp
- Utazi leaves – 3tbsp
- Ground pepper – 2tsp
- Uziza leaves – 1tbsp
- Stock cubes – 2
- Salt to taste
2. How to cook white soup
Now that you know what you need for Ofe Nsala and have all the ingredients at hand, it’s time to learn how to make white soup. Follow these steps to make your own steaming pot of delicious soup.
- Grind the dry spices in a dry mill and leave them aside.
- Wash the dried Utazi and Uzizi leaves, let them get softer, and slice them.
- Put the meat, stockfish,1 stock cube, half of the ground pepper, crayfish, and salt into a pot. Cover with water and put on medium heat. Cook until the meat and crayfish are tender, topping of the water if necessary.
- In the meantime, cook the yam in a separate pot until it’s soft and pound to a mashed consistency with a bit of water, then set aside.
- Add the remaining spices, the chopped fresh fish, and smoked fish to the pot with meat. Lower the heat and cook for 8-10 minutes until the fish is cooked. Take out the fresh fish and set aside. You can shred the smoked fish and put it back into the broth, or leave it whole.
- Put the last stock cube into the broth, and then add the pounded yam. Stir the mixture very well to prevent lumps and bad consistency, and cook for an additional 8-10 minutes, so that the pounded yam is fully incorporated.
- The soup is almost ready, but after this cooking time it will have a rather liquid consistency. If you prefer your soup to be thicker, continue cooking until the soup reaches your ideal thickness.
- To finish the cooking, add the cooked fresh fish, add the Utazi and Uziza leaves, cook for 2-3 minutes, cover the pot, let the soup sit for up to 5 minutes, and serve.
3. Other ways to cook white soup
Fresh fish isn’t the only protein you can add to your white soup to make it taste delicious and authentic. The three others include beef, chicken, and goat.
How to prepare white soup with goat meat, chicken, or beef? The recipe for the soup remains largely the same, the only difference is the cooking time for the protein. Goat meat is famously tough, so you need to cook it in advance until it’s tender and set aside.
If you’re using high quality beef, it won’t take as long to cook, so you can cook it together with the crayfish using the recipe above. Finally, chicken is the most tender meat of the three and takes approximately 20-30 minutes to cook, depending on the size, so you can cook it together with the rest of the ingredients.
Find everything you need for your kitchen on the Jiji app
