10,000 naira

Banga soup is a delight for every Urhobo man, when paired with piping hot starch, a wife can ask for anything and her husband will gladly obliged. Banga soup is now a favorite to many tribes across the country with some variations along the way.

Here is an authentic way to make Delta banga soup guaranteed to win you the heart of any deltan, or simply fill your stomach and delight your tongue.

Ready in 150 minutes

Serves 8 people

2280 calories 

Ingredients

• Cow meat (3000 naira)
• Tomato basin of Palm nuts (1500 naira)
• Ground cayenne pepper (300 naira)
• Seasoning cubes
• Fresh mackerel fish (2000 naira) you can also use catfish.
• Sachet of Banga Spice which is a blended mixture of Irugeje and ataiko (400 naira) 
• Obeletientien leaves or Dried bitter leaves (100 naira)
• 1 Oburunbebe stick also known as banga stick (150 naira)
• Dried Fish (1500 naira)
• 1 cup of deshelled periwinkle (600 naira)
• 1 tbsp ground crayfish
• Salt to taste

Preparation

• Parboil the banga nuts. Start by washing the palm nuts and place in a big pot and allow to cook till soft. When the nuts are soft, Transfer them into a mortar and pound gently, making sure you don’t break the nuts. Pour some hot water over the pounded nuts, squeeze and use a sieve to strain out the extract – Repeat this a couple of times until you get all the extract from the nut. 
• Place the palm nut extract or banga water as we like to call it into a cooking pot and place on the stovetop. Once it starts to boil add the banga spices. 
• Hot Take! I like to add my raw meat directly to the banga extract and allow everything cook together but some people may prefer to cook the meat separately before adding to the soup. To each his own! But i find parboiling the meat separately a waste of time, as you do not use any special seasoning to parboil meat meant for banga soup. But if you prefer to parboil your meat separately, place the meat in a pot and add Cameroon pepper, seasoning powder, and salt. Stir and leave to cook till the meat becomes tender and set aside.
• Allow the palm nut extract to cook for about 30 minutes or until it starts to thicken slightly. Then add your ground pepper, fresh and dried fish alongside your seasoning cubes. 
• Allow the soup to thicken some more before introducing the deshelled periwinkle and crayfish powder. Add some salt to taste and your authentic delta banga soup is ready to be devoured. 

Tips

Banga soup can be eaten with eba, fufu or semo. But it’s typically eaten with starch. This is a type of swallow made with cassava starch. Its very stretchy and smooth.  Here’s how to make starch swallow