The best Banga soup needs just a few key ingredients: palm fruit concentrate, fresh fish or meat, crayfish, scent leaves, onions, and seasoning cubes.

First, boil the palm fruit concentrate until it’s soft, then extract the juice by pounding or blending. Next, add the fresh fish or meat, crayfish, and chopped onions to the boiling palm fruit extract. Let it simmer until the flavours meld together.

Finally, garnish with scent leaves and season with seasoning cubes to taste. This simple list of ingredients ensures a delicious and authentic Banga soup every time.

That is not all, let’s consider the list below.

Banga Soup Ingredients

Here’s a list of 100 ingredients commonly used in making Banga soup:

1. Palm nuts (fresh or canned)
2. Water
3. Meat (beef, goat meat, or assorted meats)
4. Fish (fresh or dried fish, preferably catfish or tilapia)
5. Stockfish
6. Dry fish (smoked fish)
7. Shrimp
8. Crayfish
9. Periwinkle
10. Snails
11. Stock cubes (Maggi or Knorr)
12. Onion
13. Garlic
14. Ginger
15. Scotch bonnet peppers (or any other hot pepper)
16. Tomatoes
17. Bell peppers (red, green, yellow)
18. Bitterleaf (fresh or dried)
19. Utazi leaves
20. Uziza leaves
21. Scent leaves (Nchuanwu or Basil)
22. Ugu leaves (fluted pumpkin leaves)
23. Cocoyam (for thickening)
24. Ground crayfish
25. Groundnut oil (or palm oil)
26. Ogiri Igbo (fermented locust bean)
27. Salt
28. Seasoning powder
29. Alligator pepper
30. Camwood (for coloring)
31. Potash (akanwu or kaun)
32. Periwinkle
33. Okpei (traditional seasoning)
34. Ogbono seeds
35. Banga spices (optional)
36. Egusi (melon seeds)
37. Garden egg
38. Cocoyam leaves
39. Kpala (smoked head of fish)
40. Kpomo (cow skin)
41. Pomo (cow skin)
42. Uda seed
43. Ehuru (calabash nutmeg)
44. Onion leaves
45. Pepper soup spices
46. Groundnut paste
47. Yellow pepper
48. African nutmeg (ehuru)
49. Achi (thickener)
50. Palm kernel oil
51. Nchuanwu (scent leaves)
52. Camwood powder
53. Locust bean
54. Banga spices (pepper soup spices)
55. Dawa dawa (fermented seeds)
56. Ogiri okpei
57. Afia efere (Nigerian herbs)
58. Ukazi (afang) leaves
59. Crayfish powder
60. Uda spice
61. Dry pepper
62. Groundnut soup spices
63. Bitter kola
64. Bitter leaves
65. Effirin leaves
66. Efirin (scent leaves)
67. Grinded crayfish
68. Cameroon pepper
69. Ground crayfish
70. Banga sauce
71. Periwinkle shell
72. Banga nut
73. Salted fish
74. Ground crayfish
75. Red bell pepper
76. White onion
77. Fresh tomatoes
78. Ground ginger
79. Ground garlic
80. Banga spices
81. Fish fillet
82. Beef fillet
83. Chicken fillet
84. King prawns
85. Fresh basil leaves
86. Fresh thyme leaves
87. Fresh parsley leaves
88. Bay leaves
89. Coconut milk
90. Okra (optional)
91. Shredded smoked turkey
92. Shredded smoked chicken
93. Shredded smoked fish
94. Shredded smoked beef
95. Seasoned snails
96. Fresh fish fillets
97. Freshly ground pepper
98. Cayenne pepper
99. Ground crayfish
100. Beef broth

Cooking Instructions

To prepare Banga Soup, kindly follow the steps below:

1. Blend all the banga spices in a dry mill.

2. Add the palm fruit and enough water to cover it in a pot and boil for about 15-20 minutes.

3. Pound the cooked fruit with a mortal and pestle. Add 5 cups of hot water to it, Then strain out the palm juice into a separate bowl. This is the base for your soup.

4. Return the strained palm juice to the pot and add the oyster mushroom and tofu.

5. Add Cameroon pepper, the Banga spice mix and the ogiri.

6. Allow the soup to simmer on medium heat, stirring occasionally. You may need to add more water to achieve your desired consistency. It should not be too thick or too watery.

7. Taste the soup and adjust the seasoning with more salt and pepper if needed. Allow it to cook for another 10-15 minutes.

8. Serve the Banga Soup hot with your choice of swallow (fufu, eba, pounded yam) or rice.