Try this Efo Riro recipe.
- salt to taste
- 1 lb meats(i used turkey and smoked turkey)
- 4 tbsps of dry grinded crayfish
- 4 tbsps of iru ie locust beans(optional)
- 1 knorr cube
- 2 tbsps dry grinded pepper or red chili flakes
- 1 habanero pepper or ata-rodo
- 6 plum tomatoes
- 1 large red bell pepper
- 1 crushed clove of garlic(optional)
- 1 inch of grated ginger(optional)
- 1 medium sized onion
- 2 lbs of spinach or any vegetable of your choice
- 1 large dry fish(washed and soaked in luke warm water)
- 1/2 cup of palm or vegetable oil(very optional)
- Carbohydrate 8.18213333333333 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 0.346333333333333 g
- Fiber 2.36166670799255 g
- Protein 1.55466666666667 g
- Saturated Fat 0.04952 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (397g)
- Sodium 589.346666666667 mg
- Sugar 5.82046662534078 g
- Trans Fat 0.13114 g
- Calories 38 calories
Step-by-step
- Blend the tomatoes, ata-rodo and half of the onion with minimal water or none. Pour it through a fine mesh sieve to drain off the excess water
- In a soup pot, season the meats with the other half of the onion, crushed garlic, ginger, knorr, 1 tbsp. of grinded pepper and salt to taste. boil it in it's own juices until almost dry; then pour in some water to the level of the meat and check for seasonings.
- If using smoked turkey, wash and boil it in a separate pot. Once it has softened a bit, drain, remove the salty skin and set aside.
- Once the cooking meat is almost soft, add the boiled, smoked turkey to it along with the blended tomato and pepper. Cover the pot slightly, reduce the heat and let it cook. There should be a sweet smell wafting through your kitchen. After about 15 minutes, add the crayfish, iru and dry fish. At this point, if using any oil, it would be okay to add it. Taste for seasonings, and cook until the tomato has reduced. If you used any oil, the oil should float to the top; if not the tomato would just be slightly thick with no sour or acidic taste to it.
- Add the spinach and the other tbsp. of the dry grinded pepper. Stir and cook for another 5 minutes to prevent the Spinach from over cooking.
- Turn off the heat and let the soup rest before serving
Can you double this soup in a standard four-quart Dutch oven without waterlogging the greens? Halving or doubling Nigerian vegetable soups requires careful management of surface area, particularly when the blended pepper base needs to reduce down until the raw tomato acidity vanishes completely. When scaling quantities, maintain the ratio of dry ground crayfish and fermented locust beans because these umami-heavy components anchor the entire savory profile against large volumes of spinach.
Fresh Versus Preserved Elements
Integrating smoked turkey and rehydrated dried fish alongside fresh plum tomatoes introduces a complex interplay of moisture content that demands attention during the simmering phase. Fresh bell peppers and tomatoes release substantial cellular water into the pot, whereas dried fish and smoked meats absorb liquid while contributing concentrated salinity and dense protein structures. Sraining excess liquid from the blended pepper mixture through a fine-mesh sieve before it hits the pot prevents the cooking time from dragging out past the fifteen-minute threshold required to concentrate the base.
- If the stew tastes too sharp after fifteen minutes of reduction, let it simmer an additional five minutes uncovered to drive off lingering volatile acids.
- Should the spinach release excessive liquid and dilute the seasonings, turn the heat to medium-high and stir continuously until the excess moisture evaporates entirely.
- When substituting fresh prawns for dried fish, reduce the final simmering time by two minutes to keep the seafood from turning rubbery.
