Learnwithsteem: I Prepared A Sumptuous Vegetable Soup With Water leave And Pumpkin, Just What I Need!

When a woman becomes a mother, she will keep thinking of what they will eat. The thinking goes on and on daily because they can't do without it. I am not alone in this dilemma but we keep pulling through no matter how difficult it may be.

_{image was designed with PicsArt app by me}

I was thinking what soup to prepare for the kids and family because it's more than 2 weeks now that my family haven't eaten soup and swallow. It has hungered us for a long time and the kids keep shouting : 'I need to swallow garri'. I decided to make one but I carefully took advantage of the season we are into. Yes, it is rainy season and a season for vagetable. Pumpkin leaf as well as others are in quantum now and they are cheap compared to dry season.

Why I Choose To Prepare Vagetable Soup

Apart from being cheap and easily accessible now, there are health benefits to it. What are they? I am going to write on the benefits of pumpkin leaf, water leaf and periwinkle which are the major ingredients that I used to prepare the soup.

• Pumpkin leaf (Telfairia occidentalisis)

picture of the vagetable I got from my farm

This particular vagetable is known as Ugu in my language (Igbo) and it has gained wide acceptability here in Nigeria.

It belongs to the family of cucurbitaceae which is also a family of the water melon citrulluslanatus, Cucurbitapepo (pumpkin), it contains the melons which refers to any of the plants of this family that has sweet edible fleshy fruit.

It's health benefits are enormous and they are as follows.

The leaf of this Telfairia occidentalisis (Ugu) is rich in minerals like calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron and so on which the body needs.

it contains antioxidants

We can get vitamins such as thiamine, riboflavin, nicotinamide and ascorbic acid from it.

It lowers blood sugar

It aids in weight loss due to its high fiber content

• Water leaf

This leaf has a lot of names which includes but not limited to Ceylon spinach, Florida spinach, Surinam Purslane, cariru. It's scientific names are Talinum fruticosum and Talinum triangulare. But whatever it might be called,, this leaf is very healthy especially for me and all.

Benefits includes but not limited to the following:

• It is an excellent source of Calcium and phosphorus which is what I really need at this time for my bone.

• It contains vitamins A and C

• It contains iron

You can see the reasons why I decided to go for this soup.

• Nigerian Shell Periwinkle

This is a small snail that can be found in muddy swampy areas. It is very rich in minerals and calcium.

It is high in protein, rich in omega-3 fatty acids and very low in fat.

It contains magnesium and protein

It also contains iron and protein

How I Prepared The Vegetable Soup

Having known how healthy these ingredients are, I then proceeded to gather the ingredients together to make a pot of soup.

• I used 4 bundle of pumpkin leaf to prepare the soup. There is not going to be any thicker as the vegetables will do that. So this requires large quantities of the vegetables. I bought it at 400 naira (2.7 steem). As at the time I prepared this soup, I had not gone to my farm to check on the pumpkin leaf I planted, so I bought from a vendor. It was carefully selected and cut as you can see in the pictures below, then I washed thoroughly with clean water and salt and set aside

• Next was the water leaf. I carefully removed all dirt's and cut, then washed thoroughly with large amount of water and salt and set aside. I bought the one of 400 naira (2.7 steem) to match with the pumpkin leaf.

• I also got meat, stockfish and periwinkle ready by thoroughly washing them with clean water and salt. I used goat meat for the soup which I bought at 1000 naira (6.7 steem), the stock fish was bought at 1000 naira too (6.7 steem) while the periwinkle was bought at 200 naira (1.33 steem)

• The other ingredients include fresh pepper, palm oil, crayfish, stock cube, salt, onions and a little water all at the desired quantities.

Preparation Proper

I began by looking for a clean pot, I then added the meat, stock fish and periwinkle. Then fresh pepper, salt, onion, stock cube, and stirred so that the ingredients can go round. Some people likes adding the periwinkle last. But I like adding it at this stage because it allows the ingredients to be fully absorbed to the periwinkle she'll and thus make it tasty while socking out the meat.

I then placed it on the fire and allowed to cook till they are all tender especially the stock fish and meat.

After that, I added the water leaf and covered the pot for 2 to 3 minutes. I then added the pumpkin leaf. I also added the remaining ingredients like the crayfish and palm oil and covered for a little while like 5 minutes. I didn't want it to say long because I want it to be as fresh as it should be. I was not actually cooking the edikikong type of the soup.

The soup was ready in less than 10 minutes. In actuality, the soup doesn't take time to prepare. What usually takes time is getting the Vagetables ready.

It was soon ready and food was served

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Cc:
@steemitfoods
@alicok07
@steemitblog

Best regards from me

@ngoenyi, African representative for steemfoods community.