How To Cook Nigerian White Soup, Serve With Pounded Yam

 a serving of white soup with pounded yam

Dear Diary,
This white soup was so good! Because of the hot leaf, I reduced the quantity of pepper and this made every one, including the children, to really eat well.
I can't eat white soup with eba or semo unless I make it slimy with pounded cocoyam instead of yam.
Serving this dish for lunch is the greatest gift you can give him, * wink*  especially on weekends.

Ehen, I remember in 2010, a colleague asked me to write out the recipe for this soup, because she could not stand her husband coming home  with stories of how he enjoys a particular soup called white soup at a restaurant close to his office. He even told her that he looked forward to lunch breaks just to go enjoy white soup with pounded yam.

I gave her the recipe.  That very weekend, she cooked white soup without informing him. He was served his lunch as usual while she continued to look with the corner of her eye.

With the first  morsel of fufu in his mouth, he suddenly sprang up "This is the soup I have been telling you about, how did you get it"? That day was the end of white soup stories in Mrs Lawal's family.

She  hid the recipe in her kitchen, and looked forward to Monday, just to give me the gist.
White soup is now her family's favorite, and she never forgets to thank me for that white soup recipe.

 a boiling pot of white soup some pounded yam lumps

 white soup with goat meat, stock fish, beef, and catfish

INGREDIENTS FOR MY WHITE SOUP:

• Meat (preferably goat meat)
• Smoked fish
• Stock fish
• 2 little slices of yam for  thickening
• uziza leaves
• Pepper
• Onions
• Salt
• drops of palm oil
• Maggi or knorr cubes
• water

 white soup with a side of pounded yam

COOKING STEPS FOR MY WHITE SOUP:

1. Boil the meat with salt and onion only, add pepper and stock fish
2. when meat is tender enough, add just a drop of palm oil. Just enough to make it look beautiful, (If the stock fish is the dark type that cooks fast, remove from heat before adding palm oil, and  return when the soup is almost ready) otherwise you leave it white after all, that's the name.
3. Add more water to the quantity of soup you want to make, check for salt and seasoning. Allow to boil.
4. Add the pounded 1 or 2 slices of yam if you are using yam to thicken. If cocoyam, add the pounded cocoyam and the (bone picked) smoked fish. Cover and leave to boil until you are Ok with the thickness. Do not forget to stirr regular, that way the pounded yam or cocoyam in the gently disintegrates and thickens the soup
5. Check for thickness and salt before adding the washed, chopped hot leaf (uziza)
6. Stir, cover the pot and let the uziza aroma boil into the pot.
7. Turn off the heat and serve with your pounded yam.

 How to preserve  smoked cat fish at home. This is village arrangement sha!
In the city, smoked cat fish is kept in air tight containers. I cook a lot with cat fish. Can cook without meat, but not smoked cat fish. It is my secret ingredient to great taste of soups and porridge s  The only dish I do not cook with smoked cat fish is Tomato stew.

 hot leaf waiting to be a part of the white soup

NOTE: Uziza is hot, so, avoid adding much pepper. The soup should not be left to get too thick.
              Add vegetables sparingly. Cook with just a few leaves of uziza.
Enjoy your LUNCH!

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