BITTER LEAF SOUP

The bitter leaf soup popularly referred to as 'Ofe Onugbo' by the Igbo speaking people of Nigeria and ' Orugbo or Marugbo' by the ilaje people of Ondo state, is a highly medicinal soup and its good for the treatment of loss of appetite, fever, cold etc

Ingredients
Assorted meat (Beef, ox tail, shaki, cow leg, goat meat)|
Medium smoked fish
Stock fish
Grounded Crayfish
Maggi cubes
Onion
Dried grounded red hot chilli pepper
Red palm oil
White coco yam
Freshly squeezed or dried bitter leaf
curry, thyme leaves, & salt
water

METHOD OF COOKING
Thoroughly wash the assorted meat in clean water, put in a medium sized pot, add about a cup or two of water and a cube of maggi seasoning, slice the onion and add, salt to taste and your seasoning i.e curry thyme and pepper and bring to boil for about 10 minutes.Thoroughly wash the stock fish with sponge to remove any vestige of sand gain and allow to run under plenty of tap water. The stock fish is best soaked overnight to allow it absorb water and become tender. Cut the stock fish into small bits and add it to the boiling meat. Allow to boil for 5 – 10 minutes.

Add the washed medium smoked fish, and allow the whole mixture of assorted meat, stock fish, and smoked fish to boil for another 5 minutes. Now add about 4 cups of water into the pot of boiling meat and fish, and add about 1 or 2 tablespoonful of dried red hot pepper to taste and freshly squeezed or dried bitter leaf (3 to 4 balls of hand squeezed fresh bitter leaf, or 3 – 5 tablespoonful of dried bitter leaf. Allow to boil for 3 – 5 minutes.

At this point, add the palm oil, and already cooked and mashed cocoyam to thicken the soup. Where you can not get coco yam a sprinkle of garri would do the same.

Add salt, and pepper to taste again, and allow to cook for 10 minutes.

Your bitter leaf soup is ready to eat.

The Ilaje people of Ondo state Nigeria, has their unique way of cooking the Bitter leaf soup and they use only fresh fish instead of meat, stock fish etc that the igbos use, and they don't add coco yam to the soup instead the fish can be mashed to give the required thickness.