Recipe for Cooking Oha Soup

Oha Soup, popularly referred to as Ofe Oha by the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria is an absolutely delicious traditional soup recipe. This delicious soup is easy to make and you can guarantee that it would still come out delicious no matter how it is made.

Oha soup is one of those native Igbo soups you can taste and can’t forget easily because of the main ingredients that make this soup great and unique.

Oha leaves, is a seasonal one. Traditionally, the leaves are shredded by hand and not with a knife or any other sharp object because rumour has it that if the leaves are chopped with a knife, the soup will end up bitter.

The Oha leaves are gotten from the evergreen tree in the African plant that’s botanically known as Pterocarpus mildraedii. It contains many nutrients such as calcium, amino acids, fibre, vitamin A, potassium and iron.

Ingredients:

• Assorted meats (Goat meat, beef, ponmo, chichen, shaki, lamb or your preferred meat)
• Stock fish – the head especially (Okporoko)
• Smoked fish
• Periwinkle (Optional)
• Ground crayfish
• Palm oil
• Onions
• Oha leaves (preferably shredding with your fingers)
• Handful Uziza Leaves (chopped) or 1 Teaspoon ground Uziza seeds
• Cocoyam or Achi/Ede
• Seasonings (Ogiri Igbo, Yellow Scotch Bonnet, Maggi )
• Salt to taste
• Water/Stock

Preparation

1. Put meat, kponmo and stock fish in a pot, add seasoning and onions, let simmer for 5 minutes, then put a little water, cover and let cook till meat is tender.
2. You can either add cocoyam while cooking the meat so it can cook together to save time or cook the cocoyam separately.
3. When it has cooked properly, add 2 cups of water then add palm oil, allow to cook for about ten minutes. (Remove cocoyam and pound in a mortar or blend using a blender or a food processor).
4. Add ground crayfish, ground pepper, salt and let cook for another seven minutes.
5. Add the blended/ pounded cocoyam paste or achi (before you add achi to your soup, make sure you dissolve it in a little water, if not your soup will cake up). Let the soup cook for about three minutes
6. Add your Oziza first (Oziza leaves are stronger than Oha leaves), then add your Oha leaves.
7. Let it cook for one minute, then turn off the cooker.

Your delicious Oha soup is ready! Serve with your preferred swallow  such as Eba, Fufu, Pounded yam, Semovita, Wheat, etc.