This Tilapia light soup is fresh, heartwarming, mildly spicy, and rich in flavour and taste. Cooking soup with fish can be very tricky without all the fish breaking up. The method used for the recipe helps to avoid that problem.
This tilapia light soup goes well with fufu, boiled ripe plantain, fluffy rice, boiled yam or even enjoyed on its own.
Here are some tips to know when your soup is cooked.
TIPS:
Three tips to check that the soup is cooked are:
- A) the soup simmers down, this is noticeable by the mark left from the original level of soup.
- B) A layer of oil is formed on the surface of the soup.
- C) The soup thickens and when taken off the heat and allowed to cool down, it doesn’t separate into a distinct layer of water and soup.
Delicious Tilapia Light Soup
Ingredients
- 3 Large Tilapia (cleaned & cut up)
- 400 g White Onion
- 50 g Fresh Ginger
- 6 Garlic Gloves
- 3 Scotch Bonnet
- 1 Sprig of Rosemary
- 1 Cup Celery
- 2 Medium Carrots
- 120 g Tomato Paste
- 6 pieces of Toolo Beef (salted cured beef)
- 800 g Vine Tomatoes, cleaned
- Bunch of Lemon Balm
- 2 Bay Leaves
- 2 lt of water
- Salt
- 1 Lime or Lemon
- 2 tbsp Vinegar
- 2 tbsp Aftrad Village Kitchen 10 Spice blend
- 1 tbsp Aftrad Village Kitchen 7 Spice Blend
- 6-8 Fresh Okro Fingers (to be steamed)
- 2 Medium Fresh Carrots (to be steamed)
Instructions
- Clean the Tilapia with the lime juice, vinegar and water. Place the fish in a pot.
- Prepare a herb seasoning for the Fish and Soup by using half of the onion, all the garlic, ginger, 1 scotch bonnet ( or size to taste) lemon balm, bay leaves, rosemary, 10 spice blend, 7 spice blend and 1 tbsp salt. Add enough water just to blend into a smooth mixture.
- Add half of the herb seasoning to the fish and massage it well into the fish. Let the fish season for some couple of hours or at least 20 minutes.
- In a separate pot, add in the toolo beef, the celery, carrots, tomatoes, tomato paste, onion and the rest of the herb blend. Top it up with about 1 litre of water, cover the pot and cook until vegetables are soft.
- Remove all the vegetables and blend into a smooth paste. Add it back in to the soup pot, then top up with about another litre of water. Bring the soup to a boil and then lower the heat for a gentle simmer.
- Now steam the fish in the herb seasoning for about 5 minutes.
- Once the soup is cooked, correct seasoning with salt.
- Either transfer the fish to the soup pot or add some of the soup to the fish. Cover and let the soup simmer on a gentle heat for about 5minutes to allow the two flavours to infuse and marry beautifully. Taste and correct seasoning with salt if needed.
- Serve the soup with your favourite accompaniment either fufuo, boiled ripe plantains or fluffy boiled rice.
