Food-Tips: The Nigeria Igbo Tribe Okazi Soup Preparation and its Nutritiuos Benefits

From our previous posts, we mention some Nigeria tribes and soups that are peculiar to these tribes; we also specifically mentioned the Afang soup of the Igbo tribe, its ingredient and a sample method of preparing the Afang soup. If you missed that article please read Food-Tips: The Nigeria Igbo Tribe Afang Soup Preparation and its Nutritiuos Benefits.  If the Igbo tribe of Nigeria is blessed with Natural Resources, then Soups are definitely among. The Igbo have the Afang Soup, Okazi Soup, Oha Soup and more. If you missed the previous post about the different types of Soups please read the article Food-Tips: Tribal Soup Part1- Nigerian Tribes with Various Types Of Nutritious Tribal Foods and Soups.

In this article, we shall be talking about the steps in preparing the Okazi soup, don’t be scared it’s not going to be as hard as the mathematical calculus. So let’s begin by listing the required ingredient and getting to know these ingredients.

The truth is the Afang and Okazi soup uses same leaf in its preparation that is the “Okazi Leaf”, but while the Afang soup uses additional leaf like the water leaf, the Okazi soup uses other ingredient like Egusi (Melon).

Required Ingredients for the Okazi Soup

1        The Okaze Leaf: This leaf is a very important part of this soup as it is the main vegetable that is use in the preparation of this food.

2       The Periwinkle: To add taste to the Okazi soup, you need to add periwinkle as the periwinkle gives the soup a kind of taste and aroma that is very nice.

3       The Meat and Fish: Except you are a vegetarian, the important of adding meat and fish in a meal cannot be over stressed. The fish can be stock fish, dried fish, or fresh fish; it can also be a mixture of the fishes above. The meat (beef) can be a dog meat, goat meat, cow meat or mixture of the meats.

4     The Egusi (Melon): The Egusi is another important ingredient in the Okazi leaf that makes the difference between the Okazi and Afang soup.

5       Palm oil and Seasoning: The palm oil is a very important part of the soup and the use of seasoning depends on your area or locality.

Read Also: Health-Tips: Eating Healthy- Important Reasons Why You Should Eat Pepper Soup

Steps to Preparing the Okazi Soup

Step 1: Wash the meat very clean, cut the meat to the sizes you want and then put in a pot and steam. Method of steaming meat varies from place to place just use any method convenient to you.

Step 2: After steaming the meat, fry the oil and put the Egusi (Melon) inside the fried oil. Allow to boil for some time let’s say 3 minutes.

Step 3: Put the meat, fish and periwinkle inside the boiling pot steer then cover to boil for another 5 minutes.

Step 4: Now pound the Okaze Leaf to the extent that it becomes weak and the leaf can be seen. Please note that unlike the other Leaf, the Okaze leaf is not sliced but you pound the Okaze leaf.

Step 5: Put your seasoning which like it’s suggested from the beginning of this article varies depending on your area or locality.

Step 6: The Okaze Leaf is the last ingredient that you put into this meal, the reason I think is so that you don’t get to loss the taste and aroma that the Okaze leaf adds to this meal.

So, the above is basically six steps that can serve as a guide if you decide to prepare the Okazi Soup. The steps are easy and not too complicated to follow.

Nutritious Benefit of the Okazi Soup

Vitamins: The Okazi soup is a very good source of vitamins; for one thing it has a mixture of two different vegetables.

Proteins: Meat, Fish are said to be good source of proteins by nutritionists, and the Okazi soup is not left behind when it comes to the use of meat and fish in its preparation.

Fats: Palm oil is a very good source of natural fat and oil and the Fang soup makes use of the exact amount of palm oil as too much palm oil might just spoil the taste of the food.

Carbohydrate: While  the meat, fish and vegetables provide protein and vitamins respectively, you can’t take away the fact that they consist starch which in turn is a carbohydrate and also the preferred Amala (Yam Flour) that is used to eat this food consist of carbohydrate.

There are other nutritious benefits but am not a food nutritionist, am just writing from experience and for fun. So please if you know more about this food leave your opinion via your comment below. You can try the Okazi soup when you visit an Igbo land or try getting the ingredient and prepare the food by yourself either way you get to enjoy an Igbo recipe from Nigeria.