Nsala Soup is one of the favorite soups popular among the Igbo speaking people, especially in the Anambra environs. The name sounds new or unfamiliar but the nature of the soup is not far from some restaurant pepper soups. Nsala soup can be prepared with any type of meat or fish and it is very cheap and easy to prepare.
The taste of Nsala soup and its aroma always blend with pounded yam, Wheat, pounded cassava (Akpu), and Garri. It is one of the best soups for all swallows in the Nigeria food categories. A plate of well-prepared Nsala soup with one wrap of pounded yam can serve as the best food presence to your guests on any occasion. In fact, it is a special delicacy that people can rarely say ‘no’ to it.
You can make Nsala soup with fish either fresh fish or dried fish and when that is done properly the taste and aroma will be unique for any of the fish types. In other words, Nsala soup prepared with fresh fish has a different aroma from Nsala soup prepared with dried fish. The fish and ingredients define the taste of any Nsala soup.
You can also make Nsala soup with meat either cow meat, chicken, turkey, or Goat meat. Some wild animals’ meat also tastes nice in Nsala soups. Today we shall be dealing with how to prepare Nsala soup using Goat Meat.
Nsala soup with Goat meat may be mistaken by some people to mean Goat meat pepper soup that is not true. Goat meat pepper soup is quite different from Nsala soup prepared with goat meat, the taste and aroma reveal the difference.
To make Nsala soup with goat meat you need the following:
7 pieces of sliced yam
2kg of Fresh goat meats
1 teaspoon of ground Fresh pepper
2 piece of Native Maggi (Okpei)
3 teaspoon of Uziza seeds
5 spoonful of ground Clay fish
2 Maggi cubes
1 sachet of Nsala soup spices
1 teaspoon of Salt
PREPARATION OF THE NSALA SOUP
ingredients for Ofe Nsala
Start by slicing about one-quarter of yam tuber into 7 pieces and boiling the yam until it has cooked. Pound the yam in a mortar until it becomes very elastic and sticks to itself when you pound it.
Keep the small pounded yam in a separate bow.
Wash the 2kg of goat meats with salt and start cooking the goat meat with small quantity of water at this stage. Add one cube of Maggi, a small quantity of ground fresh pepper, ground sliced onions, salt, and goat meat spices. Allow the meat to be cooked before going to the next stage.
pounding the sliced yam
The next stage is to add more water into the meat pot, the water quantity should be enough to make up the quantity of Nsala soup you intend to make. Now drop the pounded yam into the pot by flattening it first or cutting it into small units so that it can easily dissolve in the pot when the soup starts boiling.
As the soup is waiting for enough heat to start boiling again, add all the ingredients for the soup such as the fresh pepper, ground clay fish, Uziza seeds, Nsala spices, and the native Maggi. If you have any other ingredient you intend to use add it at this stage.
Allow the soup to boil until all the pounded yam melts and thickens the soup. The goat meat will add a special aroma to the Nsala soup. If you want to get the extra taste of dry fish in the Nsala soup you can add some dry fish to the soup just to give it extra fish. If you want to add dry fish you need to first soak it a little in a hot water to remove some smoke content and allow the true taste of the fish to make a great change on the taste of the soup.
You can also spice up the taste of the Nsala soup by adding either big fresh or dry clay fish. You can also add small fresh fishes that can melt and join in forming the thickness in the soup. Any of these extra ingredients will impact the taste and aroma of the soup.
