African Recipes: Banga Soup

Banga Soup

Banga is one of the most delicious soups I have ever tasted. it has the savoriness of Gbegiri but it's in a class of it own. The soup is widely enjoyed all over Africa and it's called different things by different groups. (Banga by the Deltans/Benins, Obe eyin by the yorubas, Mbanga by the Cameroonians, amiedi by the urhobos and obey-ekpoitsekiris to name a few).  If you havent tried it yet, please do you will not regret it.
Ingredients
2 cups palm nut fruits (I used Ghana Fresh)
2 cups Assorted meat of choice (Precooked) (I used Shaki, Dried fish and Ponmo)
3 Tspns grounded crayfish
2 cubes Bouillon cube (Maggi or Knorr)
1 tspn salt ( to taste)
1/2 tspn locust beans (Iru) (optional)
1 tspn bitter leave (optional)

Direction

• Set a medium size pot on below medium heat, add in the Palm nut fruit and 2.5 cups of water. stir until the water is well incorporated into the palm nut. leave to cook for 25mins. 

•  Add in the precooked meat, maggi, salt, crayfish, bitter leave and locust beans. Stir again, reduce the heat to min, adjust the soup for water if need be at this point. taste and adjust for salt. cover the pot and leave to cook for another 25mins.

• There should be oil on the soup from the palm nut at this point, skim off the excess oil. Serve the soup with punded yam, fufu or starch.