Nsala(White soup)
Author: 
Recipe type: Soups and Sauces
Cuisine: Igbo. Nigerian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 5
 
Ingredients
  • 5 pieces of medium cat fish
  • 4 habanero peppers or ata-rodo
  • 4pieces of boiled yam(You may substitute with Irish potatoes or garri)
  • 4tbsps of crayfish
  • 2tbsp fulls of Ogiri Okpei
  • 11/2 tbsps. of Utazi(add more if needed)
  • 2-3tbsps of Uziza leaves or seeds(if using the seeds, 1tsp should suffice; as it is spicy)
  • 1tbsp dry pepper or red chili flakes
  • ehuru seeds and uda are optional in this recipe(the recipe varies as to what you want in it and what part of the East you come from)
  • 1 maggi crayfish
  • salt to taste
Instructions
Preparation
  1. Boil the yam and mash into a smooth paste
  2. Put a pot of water to boil. Pour the boiling water over the clean and gutted catfish. Let it sit for about 5 minutes. You will see the slime come off. Drain after the 5 minutes and using a butter knife or a blunt knife, gently scrape the slime off and rinse.
  3. Roughly blend or using a mortar, mash the ata-rodo, Ogiri, utazi, uziza, ehuru, uda and crayfish
Method
  1. Place the fish into a soup pot season with salt, maggi crayfish and dry pepper. Let it sit for about 10minutes. Pour in water enough to the level of the fish and bring to a boil; then add the Mashed ingredients including the yam and check for seasonings. Bring to another boil and cook for about 15minutes or until the fish has cooked through and until the yam has thickened the soup to your taste (Do not stir this soup, always shake the pot ever so slightly to mix the ingredients)
  2. Set aside and serve with any side
Notes
If using meats and dry fish, simply bring the meats to a boil after seasoning, cook until tender and add the fish and pounded yam at the same time. To use Uda, make sure you remove and discard the seeds first; then drop the uda into the soup without blending. Remove the Uda once soup is done as it is quite bitter.
If using uziza seeds, mash or blend it along with the other ingredients.
Recipe by Nigerian Lazy Chef at https://www.nigerianlazychef.com/2015/06/nsala-for-the-love-of-white-soup/