Below are the necessary ingredients you will need to use:

• Ogbono 
• Palm oil
• Crayfish
• Goat meat or beef or fried chicken
• Stockfish
• Cow skin (kpomo)
• Smoked fish
• Salt
• Onions
• Fluted Pumpkin (ugu leaf)
• Fresh habanero or bell pepper
• Seasoning cubes (Onga recommended)

 Pre-cooking Stages

• As is ideal for every other soup’s preparation, it’s necessary to get all ingredients ready for use before your main cooking phase begins. 

Step 1. 

• So, firstly, wash and put your meat in a pot. Season with salt, chopped onions, and stock cubes. Add your stockfish and cow skin to it. Then boil all together to attain, at least, an 80% softness.

Step 2. 

• Ensure the ogbono seeds are well-dried before grinding them into a fine powder. Make sure the bad ones are taken out too. Also, you are highly unlikely to get the right result from your ogbono soup if the ogbono you’re using has overstayed past its shelf life. 

Step 3. 

• Wash out the sand from your ugu leaves and chop them into tiny sizes. For ogbono soup, you won’t be needing many leaves, so flush out the sands from it with as much water as possible before chopping it. 

Step 4.

• Coarsely blend or pound your pepper and crayfish. Debone your smoked fish and set it aside.

 Cooking Stage

Step 1. 

• Turn the meat and the stock into a different bowl, rinse the pot and use it to heat up your palm oil to be very hot. Just hot enough to melt your ground ogbono and dissolve in it. Not to fry it. When it dissolves, add the stock from your boiled beef to the melted ogbono and stir. Note that this MUST be done on low heat. 

Step 2. 

• Add some dried pepper if you’re the type that loves your ogbono soup hot and spicy. Add some salt and seasoning too according to the quantity of the soup you’re cooking. You coarsely ground pepper and crayfish should follow too. Add your deboned fish as well and simmer for 3-5 minutes. 

Step 4. 

• Occasionally stir the soup, it doesn’t take long before it begins to thicken up. Now, if you were preparing this ogbono soup with okro, this would have been the right time to add it, however, it is cut off from the recipe in this case. 

Step 4. 

• Add the meat to the soup and cook until the soup attains your preferred level of thickness and consistency. Sometimes, it can get too thick, if this happens, then add some tepid water to the soup. Cold water can tamper with its sliminess level. 

Step 5. 

• Your chopped ugu leaves come last. You don’t need much of it, just a few long strands of tinily chopped leaves to add to the aesthetics so it doesn’t look pale. Besides, excess leaves can hinder the soup’s sliminess which, aside from the taste, is one of the main reasons the soup is loved. You should see this video. 

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