Who loves pepper like I do? 😄 That kind of pepper that makes you sweat once you start eating. The kind that makes your head start itching you and all the hairs on your arm stand at attention! 😜 This okro pepper soup is exactly what the name says; pepper soup. It is a soup with plenty pepper.
I used a combination of fresh atarodo (habanero pepper), Nsukka pepper (the yellow pepper) and Cameroon pepper. You can check out the picture of Nsukka pepper from Google just to be sure.
I have been enjoying this okro pepper soup lately because it is the perfect thing for this cool weather. It is hot and spicy and the addition of aromatics and fresh uziza kicks it up a notch.
My favorite way to enjoy okro is when it is cut up in chunks. That was my dad’s favorite way of eating it too. My mum would make general okro soup for me and her but my dad’s own would be different. His own would be cut up in big chunks with chunks of fresh pepper and I could see he was really enjoying his ‘exclusive’ bowl of okro soup! 😄
Oil-less okro pepper soup
Okro soup is one soup that has so many variations. You can make it with palm oil or without. You can have it plain, with vegetables (Ugu, spinach) or even cooked with ogbonno. My friend Noka makes the best okro ogbonno soup with plenty obstacles! 😁 I even used a little okro in my recipe for Banga soup here: http://eneskitchene.com/banga-soup-so-quick-and-easy/
For this recipe, I chose to make the okro without palm oil. You can say it’s more on the healthy side but still so delicious. It’s basically proteins (that is the fish or whatever meat you use in cooking) and vegetable which is the okro. It is easy, breezy and doesn’t involve too much preparation. Well except cleaning and chopping the okro 😉. Let’s get started with this recipe.
Ingredients
1 kilo of fresh stock fish. (2 fish)
Cooked ponmo (cow skin)
Periwinkles (optional)
Prawns
1 large onion
2 cloves of garlic
A little thumb of ginger
Atarodo pepper (habanero)
Nsukka peper (yellow pepper)
Cameroon pepper powder
Coarse black pepper
Salt and seasonings
Pepper soup spices
2 tablespoons of crayfish powder
Fresh uziza leaves
Fresh okro
Directions
- Put cleaned fish in the pot. Add onions, crushed garlic, ginger, atarodo and Nsukka pepper to the fish.
2. Add the salt and seasonings, Cameroon pepper and black pepper.
3. Add a little water and cook fish on a very low simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Next, add the cooked ponmo, crayfish powder, and more water. Here you can take out the fish and set aside so it does not break in the soup. However, I carried on with mine in the soup and it came out whole and fine.
5. Cook for another 5 minutes. Next is to add the chopped okro. You can put a lot of okro or less. I wanted my soup really “soupy” so I didn’t use too much okro.
I forgot to add the pepper soup spice earlier on so I added it here!
6. Cook okro for 5 to 7 minutes. Lastly add the uziza leaves and prawns. Cook for another 5 minutes.
Soup is ready to be devoured with your favorite swallow of choice! God bless you, xoxo!!
