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As the title implies, this blog post is about how to cook catfish soup and this Nigerian recipe is always a hit because it is easy and also delicious.

In Nigeria, catfish is a very popular seafood and it is sold in its fresh form or roasted/ dried form.

Catfish is also seen as an exotic seafood because it is more expensive than mackerel(commonly known as titus), horse markerel (referred to as Kote), Herrings ( referred to as Shawa) and Argentina silus fish (known as Ojuyobo).

I hope you took note of the names of fishes in Nigerian market I stated above. Those are the local names that will make shopping easy for you when you want to buy fishes in NIgerian markets.

That reminds me, I should also tell you that the local name for fresh catfish in Nigeria is “Eja aro” .

As exotic and well loved as catfish is in Nigeria, many people do not like to cook it at home instead they prefer to buy the already cooked one in form of catfish soup, catfish pepper soup and catfish barbecue with chips.

Often times, the reason for this is because many people get irritated when they touch fresh catfish because of the slime that makes it slippery.

Another reason for this is also because many people do not know how to clean catfish for cooking. But for those who know how to clean it, they enjoy using it to make several amazing recipes and combining it with other foods while enjoying the health benefits.

Catfish Benefits

Some of the benefits of eating catfish are ;

1. Great source of lean protein – catfish is a great source of protein as 100 grams serving of catfish provides about 32% of our protein daily needs
2. May aid weight loss – nutrient dense catfish is can be a great choice people watching their calorie counts because it boosts the felling of being full.
3. Beneficial for the eyes – catfish is rich in omega-3 fatty acids that helps the eye health.

Now that some of the benefits of including catfish in your diet have been highlighted above, I will be explaining how to clean catfish slime fast and of course how to cook catfish soup so that you can be able to easily include it in your diet.

Catfish Soup Ingredients

25 tomatoes

3 medium sized onions (alubosa)

9 scotch bonnet pepper (ata rodo)

8 cayenne pepper (shombo)

2 bell peppers (tatashe)

2 tablespoons crayfish powder (ede)

1 small seasoning cube

12 tablespoon salt (Ise be)

1 big alum

1 catfish (Eja aro)

1\2 cup vegetable oil (ororo)

How to Clean fresh Catfish for soup – If you would like to watch how to clean a catfish video on Youtube click here

• Get a big chopping board and place the catfish fish on it
• Cut catfish with a sharp knife -depending on how big the catfish is, sometimes I cut mine into 3 pieces or more – and put in a big bowl
• Add a lot of water and alum
• leave for 5 – 10 minutes

Alum is aluminum potassium sulphate. It is commonly found in markets in Nigeria because it is used for water purification, and cleaning food items with slime such as catfish, snails etc. Alum as it is popularly called is non-toxic.

So lets go back to how to clean a catfish step by step

• After 10 minutes you will begin to see the slime in the water as it separates from the fish because of the presence of alum in the water
• with your hands, use the alum to clean all the fishes properly
• also remove the fish intestines and make sure to scrap the fish blood with a small knife
• put the cleaned fishes in another
• after cleaning all the fishes
• boil enough water to cover the fishes as arranged in the bowl
• add 11½ table spoons salt and pour the hot water in the bowl
• cover it and set aside for 10 minutes
• after 10 minutes remove the fishes and place in a basket to drain out excess water.

Now that the cleaning is done, I will go on to write about how to cook fresh catfish soup. Thank you for sticking with me thus far.

How To Make Catfish Soup

• Clean the tomatoes, peppers and onions in clean water
• Finely chop one onions and set aside
• Blend all the tomatoes, peppers and the remaining two (2) onions to a smooth consistency
• Put a clean pot on fire
• Pour vegetable oil into the pot and allow it heat up briefly
• Add the finely chopped onions and fry for 2 minutes
• Add the blended tomatoes and onions paste
• Add crayfish powder, seasoning cube and ½ tablespoon salt
• Stir, cover the pot and cook for 20 – 25 minutes or till the oil floats
• When the oil begins to float, add the cleaned catfish that was set aside earlier

remember the catfish has already been pre-cooked in hot water  so there is no need to cook it for too long so that it does not crumble in the soup

• Gently stir so that the fishes does not crumble
• Cook for 5-7minutes
• Soup is ready

Like I said earlier, this soup is versatile in terms of food combinations because it combines well with many Nigerian foods. You can eat it with;

• Rice
• Spaghetti
• boiled yam
• boiled potatoes

To eat swallow, you can also combine it with other Nigerian soups like;

• Efo Elegusi
• Efo riro
• Ewedu soup
• Okro
• Ogbono soup

Thank you for visiting my blog and taking your time to read my blog post today.