How To Cook Banga Soup
Banga soup is arguably one of the best soups in Nigeria. Some people mistake this dish for Ofe Akwu from the eastern part of Nigeria but they are different. Though they are made from palm fruit, they differ in their mode of preparation. This soup is loved by the people from the southern part of Nigeria, precisely Delta state. It can be eaten with starch, yam, rice, and all swallows.
Banga soup can be made with either catfish or meat – I tend to go for fish simply because of the delight I get from pinching littles bits of fish as I eat. Also, the flavour that fish adds to banga is out of this world. Below are the ingredients and method of preparation, we’ll be using catfish in this recipe. Try it out and thank us later.
Ingredients
- 1 medium-sized fresh catfish
- 1 medium-sized dry catfish
- 5 cups banga juice
- 1 Cooking spoon Crayfish, Ground
- 2 medium-sized Dry fish / Smoked Fish
- 2 tbsp. chilli pepper – ground
- 1 tbsp. Banga spices
- 1/2 Cup dried atama leaf or Dried Bitter leaves – Crushed
- 2 seasoning cubes.
- Salt to taste
Method of Preparation
- The first step in the preparation of banga soup is to prepare the spices you’d be adding to the soup.
- Pound and extract the palm fruit juice.
- Prepare the smoked/ dry catfish by opening it up from the middle. Remove the bone and gut then soak in hot water to soften for 10 minutes before rinsing with clean water. Rinse and set aside.
- Prepare the fresh catfish by cleaning it thoroughly. Once it’s cleaned, place in a pot and add little water and sprinkle with salt and leave to steam for about 5 minutes.
- Pour the extracted palm nut liquid in a medium-sized pot.
- Add the dry catfish, banga spice, pepper, salt to taste, seasoning, ground crayfish. Stir and leave to cook with the pot covered for about 15-20 mins till the palm oil rises to the top
- Add the atama leaves into the pot of soup, Stir and leave to simmer for 5 mins.
- Turn off the burner and serve with Starch, rice or yam
Image from Whisk