Recipe: How to Cook Oha Soup
Oha Soup is one of the richest and most enjoyed soups by the Igbos from south-east region of Nigeria.
Oha Soup makes digestion easy. The dietary fiber in it helps to improve digestive function. It prevents constipation.
The Ingredients are
- Vegetable (Oha leaves)
- Cocoyam (9 corms) or corn flour if you can’t get cocoyam.
- Assorted Beef: Includes Beef, stockfish, goat meat, Cow leg, shaki (cow tripe) etc.
- Assorted Fish: Dry Fish and Stock Fish
- 3 cooking spoons Red Palm Oil
- Chilli pepper, salt and crayfish (to taste)
- Seasoning cubes
- 1 teaspoon Ogiri Igbo
- Uziza seed or leaf( just to add a playful aroma to the soup)
Steps for Cooking
- Wash and boil the cocoyam corms till soft. Remove the peels and use a mortar and pestle to pound the corms into a smooth paste. You can also blend with your blender.
- Using your fingers, Pick and cut the Ora (Oha) leaves into tiny pieces. This is to prevent the vegetable from becoming darker in colour and from giving the soup a bitter taste which usually happens when you cut the ora leaves with a knife.
- Pick and cut your uziza leaves into tiny pieces with a knife.
- Grind the crayfish and pepper and set them aside.
- Boil the shaki (cow tripe), Tripod from the cow leg, stock fish and dry fish in water just a little bit above the content of the pot, till they are tender.
- Wash the beef and add to the pot of shaki etc and continue cooking. When the meat is properly boiled, add your seasoning cubes and allow to simmer for 5 minutes.
- Add the pepper, ogiri and ground crayfish and cook for 10 minutes. Add the cocoyam paste in small lumps and then the palm oil.
- Cover the pot and leave to cook on high heat till all the cocoyam lumps have blended with the soup. You can add more water if you feel that the soup is too thick.
- Add the ora leaves and uziza leaves, and leave to cook for about 5 minutes. Add salt to taste, stir and the soup is ready!
- You can serve with any swallow of choice such as pupuru, wheat, alala, eba, semovita, fufu, pounded yam etc.
- Enjoy your Oha Delicacy.
