🇳🇬 Nigeria · South-west Nigeria (Yoruba)
Ila alasepo (Yoruba okra soup)Yoruba okra soup
The Yoruba form of okra soup in which the okra is cooked together with the pepper stew (obe ata) in one pot; 'alasepo' means 'cooked together'.
Origin and history
Ila alasepo belongs to south-west Nigeria, where Yoruba cooks serve okra (ila) either plain with a separate stew or, in this form, cooked together with it. The name means okra cooked together. It is eaten with amala and other swallows.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 5 servings
- Total time
- 50 min
- Hands-on
- 30 min
Ingredients
- 500 g1.1 lb fresh okra (ila), washed, trimmed, finely chopped
- 80 ml1/3 cup red palm oil
- 2 red bell peppers (tatashe), deseeded
- 2-3 scotch bonnet chillies (ata rodo), to taste
- 1 medium onion, half blended with the peppers, half chopped
- 500 g1.1 lb beef or assorted meat, cooked tender, with its stock
- 300 g10.5 oz fresh fish, firm, cut in chunks; or stockfish (panla)
- 100 g3.5 oz prawns, optional
- 1 tbsp iru (fermented locust beans)
- 2 tbsp ground dried crayfish
- 1 stock cube, optional
- salt, to taste
Method
-
1. Blend the bell peppers, chillies and half the onion to a smooth purée. Chop the okra finely and have the cooked meat and its stock ready.
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2. Heat the palm oil over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes, add the chopped onion and then the pepper purée.
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3. Fry the purée for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until it darkens and the raw smell is gone and the oil rises to the top.
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4. Add the stock cube, salt and the iru, then the meat and about 250 ml (1 cup) of the stock. Simmer 5 minutes.
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5. Add the fish and prawns and cook 5 minutes; lift out the fish and prawns carefully and keep them aside.
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6. Stir the okra into the stew and cook for 3 to 4 minutes only, until it draws but is still bright.
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7. Add the crayfish and return the fish and prawns. Heat through for 2 minutes and serve.
Notes
- Ila alasepo is the Yoruba way of cooking okra soup with the pepper stew (obe ata) in the same pot, alasepo meaning cooked together. The parent okra soup here is the plain Igbo-style soup with palm oil and greens; here the soup is built on a fried pepper base (tatashe and ata rodo) and no greens, the okra is added last.
- Some cooks prepare the stew and the okra in separate pots and combine them at the end, which keeps the okra greener; others, as here, add it straight into the stew. Do not cook the okra for long.
- Iru is fermented locust beans, available from African grocers; the soup will lack its savoury funk without it, and a spoonful of miso stirred into the stew is a distant stand-in. Stockfish can replace fresh fish. Frozen sliced okra works if thawed; the draw will be slightly lighter. If you have no tatashe, use red bell peppers and a small amount of tomato.
- Serve with amala, eba (garri), pounded yam (iyan), semovita or cassava fufu. Amala with ila alasepo is a classic Yoruba pairing.
- Some versions add a little tomato; others a spoonful of palm oil more. The soup keeps two days in the fridge.
Adapted from Afrifood Network, Ila Alasepo, My Active Kitchen, Ila Alasepo, and 9jaFoodie, Otong soup (notes on ila asepo).
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