How to prepare ogbono soup?

How can one prepare the amazing Ogbono soup? What are the secrets to making it truly outstanding? What do professionals say about it? Read on and you’ll find it all out here.

 Ogbono soup is one of the most loved Nigerian recipes almost every family loves! And no wonder given how delicious it is as well as how good it is for one’s body.

However, many of those making it find it hard to prepare, as there are many little details to bear in mind to make it just perfect. For this reason, we have decided to explain what exactly one should remember when making it as well as what the Ogbono soup nutritional value is for those of you who want to know a number of calories they consume.

There are different types of Ogbono soup. Some Nigerian recipes add various ingredients to make it truly outstanding. We will introduce you to several approaches to cooking one of the most delicious Nigerian soups ever. 

What is an Ogbono fruit?

Ogbono fruit is also known in Africa as the wild mango. It is growing in the humid forests and can be found in such African countries as Congo, Angola, Nigeria, and Uganda. The fruit of this tree is loved because they have valuable nuts which can be consumed in food.

Thus, Africans living in areas with wild mangos grind the nuts found inside the fruits and add them to various Ogbono fruit recipes. On of such recipes is the one we are about to introduce you to in this article. Save this Ogobono soup Nigerian recipe and enjoy the delicious meal with your family.

How to cook Ogbono soup?

First of all, we highly recommend you getting the best ingredients for it. Visit a farmer’s market or only purchase the food we are about to list here for you from the stores you can really trust, as it will only have a positive effect on your health. Otherwise, it will either no or bad effect on your life in the end.

Ingredients for the soup

• Different types of meat and fish: beef, chitterlings of a cow, naturally dried fish, and some fish jerky
• Several bouillon cubes
• Up to 100 grams of the seeds of Ogbono
• An onion
• Some crawfish
• Bitterleaf
• Leaves of a pumpkin
• Some red palm oil
• Spices
• Spinach
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  Start with following our advice in this section. This is a list of things one must do before he proceeds to the actual cooking process. It is important to do these things beforehand to save some time while you start actually cooking.
• One should begin with crushing the Ogbono seeds into powder. There is special equipment for it, so you don’t have to worry about spending a long time trying to crush it. You can get a special spices grinder and use it for this purpose. Besides, you can also use it later to grind pepper or other spices. However, if you don’t have, you can either grind the seeds in an electric coffee grinder or try to crush it manually.
• The night before you want to cook the soup according to this recipe for Ogbono soup, you need to freeze the spinach in a freezer. Then, the next day when you take it out of the freezer, it will be frozen and hard. So, you should take a knife and cut it while it is still hard and frozen.
• The leave the spinach on a paper towel until all the water is soaked. Take them when they are dry and defrosted in a natural way and move on to the next step.
• Then take a big pot, add some water to it and put the bouillon cubes in the water. Boil it until ready and let it cool down for some time.
• Use the same electric spices grinder to crush the crawfish and other spices. Turn them into a homogenous dry mixture.
• Then take some water, bring it to the boil and leave it for some time until needed.

Now let’s see what the actual process of making this African food looks like when everything is prepared and ready to be cooked.

Ogbono soup preparation

1. First of all, you must take the read palm oil and out it in a pot. You don’t have to bring it to a boil, but rather make it warm enough to start cooking.
2. Now, as the oil is all liquid and warm, you can add the seeds which you previously ground for it and make them into a homogenous mixture. It should look like a paste.
3. Then, proceed to mixing this paste and the bullion you made when boiling and cooking the meat. Bullion should be both of the fish and the meat mixture you made. Cook the paste in this water on a minimum heat.
4. Remember to stir this meal at all times, so that it becomes thick but not too much. Don’t let it stick to the pan.
5. You can stop doing it once you see that the seeds you crushed took all the bullion and left no water in a pot.
6. Then comes the time to use that boiled water you saved for later. Make sure it is really boiling and add it to the paste. Keep doing this same action until you achieve the consistency of the soup you want to see there.
7. Then, we highly recommend you cooking it very carefully. You will need to stir the contents of the pot around seven times. Just set a timer for three or so minutes and stir the dish every time it goes off. Make sure you do not let the nuts at the bottom of the pot stick. Repeat the same action seven times and make sure you are doing it while cooking on the minimum heat.
8. Now, as you did this procedure (though we know that it might be tedious and time consuming) you are almost finished with your meal. All you must do now is add the rest of the meat into the pot you are cooking in and mix it with the spices you selected for your soup. If it looks too thick, add some boiling to water until you get the thickness you wat to see.
9. Now comes the time to add the rest of the ingredients. For it, you can set the pot with Ogbono soup aside and turn the cooker off. Take the defrosted veggies you chose for this dish and put them in the pot for several minutes. Then, make sure to turn the cooker on for a couple of moments and let them absorb the bullion and get cooked.

The Ogbono soup is done and ready to be served with any other Nigerian recipe dish or by itself if you wish. Make sure you serve when it’s still hot, as it has the most flavor then.

Important things about the Ogbono soup preparation

There are a couple of things which when missed can lead the to completely ruined dish instead of a delicious meal for the whole family.

1. Make sure you do not confuse the seeds you are getting with any other possible nuts. There are multiple options on the market which might look the same way, but they are not Ogbono nuts. So, the be attentive and only shop in places you can trust.
2. Never fry the nuts, as it might lead to you not being able to stir and make the soup thick. So, make sure you follow the recipe carefully step by step, as this will increase the chances you creating the perfect soup.
3. Remember to cook this meal on a minimum heat, as otherwise, chances are you can burn it. If no on the minimum heat, then at least make it below the middle mark on the cooker.
4. Only mix the meat into the paste once the bullion and the nuts are mixed up nicely. Otherwise, the meat cooked in such conditions can burn and ruin the taste of your whole meal. So, stick to the instructions we created here for you.
5. Grind the ingredients nicely to achieve the desired effect. If you don’t do it carefully, you might end having huge chunks of nuts in the powder which would longer to absorb the bullion. So, to prevent lumps in the soup, take time to grind the ingredients well.
6.  
6. Only fry, stir and cook the ingredients on quality pots. Otherwise, in most cases, you can end having everything sticking to the pot. Don’t sacrifice the soup quality for using cheap pots.
7. Take time to make the perfect Ogbono soup. It won’t be done in a couple of minutes. And no matter how fast you want to make it, you need to start with defrosting the vegetables (if yiuo want them in your soup after all) on the previous day as well as grinding and mixing. To make delicious, you will have to dedicate several spare hours to cooking. So, make sure you start working on it when you have that time.
8. Don’t purchase old Ogbono nuts. When cooking them, you might not feel the difference, but once the soup is done, it will have this horrible bitter aftertaste. So, not to waste your time and money, make sure the products you are getting are fresh and ready to be used.

Now, we hope that this recipe will help you a lot in the process of making an amazing Ogbono soup. It is one of the best Nigerian soups and you should definitely try it. Besides, the Ogbono soup nutritional value is another thing you should bear in mind.

Ogbono soup nutritional value

The thing is that they use a lot of different ingredients for it. So, it’s important to count each of their value to calculate the general one. Howeve,r to save your time, we have calculated that one serving of Ogbono soup is around 270 calories. It has a huge intake of protein in it while it has no cholesterol or sodium in it. It is good news for people worried about this.

Wrapping it all up, enjoy the brilliance of this soup with all its healthy benefits and beneficial nutrients. We promise that every second you spend on cooking is well-spent given the positive effect it will have on the general condition of your health. Enjoy!