Afang Soup - a delicious, healthy, green leafy vegetable soup native to the Efik and Ibibio tribes inhabiting the Southern Part of Nigeria (Ákwá-Ibom and CrossRiver precisely).

This soup is cooked with two vegetables; the Afang leaf (called okazi/ukazi in other parts of Nigeria and eru in Cameroon) and water leaf. It is quite different from Okazi Soup (native to the Imo/Abia State people) and Edikainkong Soup(cooked with ugu and waterleaf). 

It is the rainy season, the small garden in our backyard is filled with these fresh looking waterleaves and I couldn't just let them waste. I kept on wondering what else I could make with them apart from adding it to green amaranth when making Yam and Vegetable (ji agworoagwo). I remembered Afang soup is made with it, googled the recipe and was amazed at how simple and easily accessible the ingredients are. 

I didn't think I have any other story to tell about this soup since it's the first time I'll be making it until I finished cooking and was snapping it. My dad saw it and exclaimed, "what is this fine soup you cooked, wait is it that ọkazi I I saw you blending? You cooked Afang soup?!" And proceeded to tell me how their mother used to cook it when they were small in PortHarcourt, how he used to pound the okazi leaves with mortar. Well, I don't need to tell you how I generously dished the soup with cassava fufu for him, glad that I was able to make him revive one of his childhood memories.

And oh! My own verdict, the soup is quite delicious, has this slimy texture from the waterleaf and is quite easy to make. It is a good way to eat up on the healthy greens and I have added it to the list of soups I'll be making on a reg.

How To Make Afang Soup

As with most if not all Southern delicacies, there must be seafood; snails, clam, periwinkle, prawns etc, I used some snails in mine. Feel free to use any any protein available to you.

Ingredients:

• Meat of choice (beef, goat meat, cow skin, tripe etc) 
• Stock fish and/or Dry fish 
• Some shelled and washed snails (or other seafood of choice) 
• 2 handfuls of Afang/Okazi leaves, sliced
• A small bunch of Waterleaf
• 1 cup of palmoil
• 2 medium red onions
• 2 stock cubes
• 3 tablespoons of ground crayfish
• 3 scotch bonnet pepper
• Salt to taste

How To Make Afang Soup:

Boiling the Meat and other Proteins:

• Wash the meat properly in plenty of water and place in a deep pot. 
• Add some water, one of the chopped onions, the stock cubes, some salt and proceeded to cook for till it softens. It is advisable to start with the tough meats (cow skin, tripe etc) first and along the line add the others. 
• Soak the stock fish or dry fish in hot water, debone and wash out any sand that might be on it. 
• When the meat softens, add the fish, the washed snail and cook for like 10 minutes. 
• Use as little water as possible while boiling the meat because this soup does not need much water in it. 

Preparing the Vegetables:

• While the meat is boiling, start preparing the vegetables, wash the water leaf in plenty of water, pick the leaves, roughly chop them and place in a coriander to drain the excess water. 
• For the afang leaves, you can get them already sliced from the market, wash it properly and using a blender or food processor, pulse-blend it to tinier pieces. Traditionally, this is done using mortar and pestle and you can as well use it if that's what's available at the moment. 

Cooking The Soup: