Amala, Ewedu soup and Gbegiri

Amala is wrapped in a transparent cellophane bag. Two of the most popular soups used in eating Amala are ‘Gbegiri’ and 'Ewedu' soup. ‘Gbegiri’ is prepared with brown beans, which is peeled and cooked until extremely soft. This takes about an hour or more. Water is added intermittently, ensuring that it is always at the same level with the beans; this enables the right amount of water in the soup when the beans is done. The soft beans is blended, and filtered with a sieve. The beans is poured into a pot and brought to boil, smoked fish is added (if desired), salt, pepper, crayfish, stock cube and palm oil are also added to the mixture. The pot is covered on low heat until the oil changes from red to yellow. The ‘Ewedu’ soup is prepared with ‘Ewedu’ leaves, hand picked and washed. A cooking pot is placed on a lit burner, water is added into the pot and heated to boiling point. The ‘Ewedu’ leaves are added with potash to make it tender. Then it is mashed with a cooking broom for about five minutes or less. Ground crayfish is added with fermented locust beans ‘Iru’, maggi, salt and pepper to taste. Allow to simmer for 2 minutes.