How To Make Delicious Editan Soup With Water leaves

Editan soup is another tasty vegetable based soup popularly known among the Efiks and Ibibios, this indeed is a rich tasty soup made from a slighly bitter and slimy leafy vegetable called Editan,waterleaf and other healthy ingredients.

Here you go again Calabar food lovers here is another delicious vegetable soup recipe for you which is similar to Afang soup in the preparation process but slightly different in taste; one thing about this editan soup, is that it is deliciously tasty such that one could confuse it taste with that of Afang and Edika-ikong soup, am sure you will love this soup and would appreciate me for this.

Editan leaves are deep green leaves with an obvious bitter taste. If you are familiar with bitter leaves(bitter leaf soup), you would easily understand exactly how bitter editan leaves taste like when it is not washed. Editan soup is a very special and delicious soup which can either be prepared with okro or water leaves depending on which one you want to use, they are both good to go. If you are using okro to prepare editan soup, there would be no need for water leaves. You either use one of them but not both.
In the preparation of this soup, one needs a lot of time to get things done appropriately. There are other soups like afia efere (Calabar white soup)and ogbono soup, which are faster and simple to prepare compared to Editan soup. The reason why Editan soup takes a lot of time is because of the procedures involve in the preparation.

Slicing and washing of the slimy bitter liquid out of the leaves.Plucking and slicing of bitter leaves and chopping and washing of the periwinkles which are the major things involved and the soup requires a lot of ingredients for it to taste better and delicious.

The following are the things you need to do before starting the real cooking of the editan soup Just before you start the preparation of Editan soup

How to wash bitter taste from Editan leaves

Pluck, pick, rinse if necessary and slice Editan leaves into tiny pieces. You can buy editan leaves and give them to one of the women selling vegetables in the market to help you do this quickly without much time wastage.After leaves have been thinly slice, pound the leaves in a mortar but dont make it into a smooth paste like the way you pound Afang leaves, just to reduce the sharp slices.Pour the pounded leaves into a medium bowl, add a cup of water. Using your both hands, mash and squeeze the leaves against your palms, until the greenish slimy water comes out,pour the leaves into a colander (Sieve) to drain out the greenish water; keep squeezing and pouring water to it. When the slimy liquid is all out, taste it with your tongue to check if the bitter taste has reduced or if you can tolerate it, if it is still bitter, continue squeezing and be pouring water to it. When the bitter taste reduce, squeeze out the water from the leaves or leave it inside the colander for the water to drain out and keep it aside

Other things you need to do before cooking editan soup

Pick, pluck the water leaves from the stalks and remove out the think flower.Wash and shred the water leaves into tiny piece. If you are going to be using okro to prepare the editan soup, wash and chop the okro (okra) fingers into tiny shapes and keep aside.Wash stockfish, kpomo (cow hide) and dried or smoked fish in salt water and keep all aside. Cut the kpomo into desired shapes.Cut your periwinkles, wash severally and soak in salt until you need it. You can steam it for 5 minutes just to be sure that there are extra dirt or debris in them.if you are going to use snails, wash the snails with lime water to get rid of the slippery substance, partially divide the snails at the centre and keep it aside.Wash, season the meat with two seasoning cubes, one onions and pepper and cook themeat until soft when it is almostalmost soft, add your stockfish (cod), snails andkpomo to the meat and cook till soft.

Ingredients for Editan Soup preparation

1 Big bunch of Editan leaves.
Water leaves.
A handful oduza (oziza) leaves.
Meat
1 medium stock fish head.
2 Medium size smoked fish or dried fish.
Snails (8 medium size (optional)
Crayfish.
2 Cups of periwinkles.
Pepper
25 Cl palm oil.
4 Seasoning cubes.
1 Ball onion
Salt


Directions on how to prepare editan soup with water leaves

Since the meat is already cooked, add 1 cup of water to the meat and allow it to boil. When the water starts to boil,Add the wash smoked fish to the pot. Make sure you dont add it with the meat to cook because the heat will break them down till you cant find them anymore.Add palm oil, crayfish, seasoning cubes, pepper traditional ingredients (okpei), stir and let it cook for 5minutes.Add the shredded water leaves or chopped okro to the pot on heat.Add the alreadywashed editan leaves and uziza leaves (odusa leaves) without stirring, cover the pot and allow to boil for 5 minutes.Uziza leaves givea unique flavour to editan soup, you can as well substitute with the uziza seeds.Open the pot and stir the soup properly and allow it on a low heat for 5more minutes.Taste for salt and seasonings, put of the heat and bring down the soup.

Your editan soup is ready, serve with Ekpang-iwa ,eba, fufu or semolina.

Simple directions to make editan soup

1. Add 1 cup of water to the meat to increase the liquid, but if the meat has enough stock, dont add more water. Bring the meat to a boil.

2. Add the wash smoked fish to the pot. Make sure you dont add it with the meat to cook because the heat will scatter them, till you cant find the pieces anymore.


Boiling of meat for editan soup

 

3. Add palm oil, crayfish, seasoning cubes, pepper traditional ingredients (okpei), stir and let it cook for 5minutes.

4. Add the shredded water leaf or chopped okro to the pot on heat, depending on the one you.


Cooking process of editan soup

 

5. Add the alreadywashed editan leaves and uziza leaves (odusa leaves) without stirring, cover the pot and allow to boil for 5 minutes.


Editan and uziza leaf have been added to the content.

 
After adding the leaves, stir let the soup cook on a low heat while the ingredients combine

 

6. After 5 minutes, stir the soup properly and allow it on a low heat for fivemore minutes.


Delicious editan soup is ready

 

7. Taste for salt and seasonings, put of the heat and bring down the soup.


Enjoy Editan soup with semolina or fufu

 

7. Your editan soup is ready, you can serve it with Ekpang-iwa, eba, fufu or semolina.