HOW TO COOK OGBONO SOUP WITHOUT PALM OIL

Oilless  Ogbono soup cooked without oil, served with very elastic pounded yam.

How I cook my Ogbono soup without palm oil

makes them look inviting. Most Nigerian soups taste better without palm oil but we need it for for nutrition and bright color. Egusi soup cooked without oil tastes great, even okra soup, try making simple okra using fresh or frozen fish and skip palm oil. You’ll enjoy the soup better. 

This ogbono soup is an old post. I complained sometime back that some food posts were accidentally deleted during blog maintenance and promised to replace them all with time.

This is one of those posts and I’m replacing it today. Thank God the post was shared on Social media and the pictures are still there. All I do now is copy from there and put back here on the blog.

To cook good ogbono soup without oil, you need some tatshey for bright color. I remember when I first posted this recipe and a reader asked if I used tomato paste for colour… No, not tomato. Red bell peppers (Tatashey).

I uses them when I skip palm oil in my cooking.  The more the tatashey, the more the bright red colour.

 

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup ground ogbono 
1 cup ground crayfish
2 kpomo (cow skin)
1 kg beef
One large sized dry cat fish
1 small wrap dried stock fish
2 seasoning cubes
Salt to taste
1 small wrap dadawa (locust beans) Optional
a handful chopped ugu vegetable (Fluted pumpkin)
Water to cover the meat after steaming because you need stock for a delicious pot of soup
4 medium sized red bell pepper (Tatatshey)
1 tablespoon ground  fresh ata rodo pepper (Scotch bonnets)
1 medium sized onion for steaming the meats.


BEFORE YOU COOK THIS OGBONO SOUP;

Boil the meats with onion and salt till tender and set aside. 
Kpomo takes time to cook unless you are lucky to find soft ones, you can also boil them till tender and set aside, frying helps the kpomo soften faster. 
Get the ogbono seeds ground
Blend the tatashey and other pepper till smooth and set aside
Wash and shred the ugu leaves with a kitchen knife and set aside too.
Wash the dry catfish with warm water and salt, debone and set aside.

 

MAKING OILLESS OGBONO SOUP:

STEPS ON HOW TO COOK OGBONO SOUP WITHOUT PALM OIL

1. After steaming the meats with stock fish and onion till tender, add water so you make enough stock for soup. If the pot got dry while steaming beef, now add water to the level of the meats, you can adjust later if more water is needed.
2. Let the pot boil, then add the remaining ingredients except the dry catfish and ugu leaves. Those two will come last so they don’t over cook or get crushed while stirring soup.
3.  Cover to boil and then add the ground ogbono, stir gently and cover halfway so your ogbono soup doesn’t boil and overflow. When it boils, stir very well, check for taste and salt and thickness, if it’s thicker than you want, you can always adjust with a little water and let it boil again.
4. Add the dried deboned fish and stir, check for taste again before adding the vegetables.
5. Put the lid back on the cooking pot. Leave vegetables to simmer for just a minute or two at most, stir, check for taste again and turn off the heat.
6. You can serve with any fufu swallow of choice.I served this with fluffy hot pounded yam for lunch.
7. Enjoy!