8. While meat and peppers are boiling away, boil some water in a separate pot

9. Once water boils, start working on ‘cleaning’ the vegetables. Starting with Ukazi, get 2 bowls: 1 for scooping out hot water and the other large enough to hold the vegetables. (Don’t turn the heat off, just reduce it to low.)

9b. Pour out the Ukazi leaves into the larger bowl, pour in enough hot water to cover the vegetables. Stir with a spoon for about 1 minute

10. Drain the Ukazi leaves from the hot water into a sieve

11. Once leaves are drained, rinse with cold running water 4-6 times (please don’t skip this step!)

12. Once rinsed 4-6 times, squeeze vegetables and transfer to a dry pot (no heat yet!)

13. Set that aside, move on to the next vegetable, Ugwu

13b. Pour out the Ugwu leaves into the larger bowl, pour in enough hot water to cover the vegetables. Stir with a spoon for about 1 minute

14. Drain the Ugwu leaves from the hot water into a sieve

15. Once leaves are drained, rinse with cold running water 4-6 times (please don’t skip this step!!)

16. Once rinsed 4-6 times, squeeze vegetables and transfer to a dry pot (no heat yet!)

17. Set aside, move onto the Oha leaves

17b. Pour out the Oha leaves into the larger bowl, pour in enough hot water to cover the vegetables. Stir with a spoon for about 1 minute

18. Drain the Oha leaves from the hot water into a sieve

19. Once leaves are drained, rinse with cold running water 4-6 times (please don’t skip this step!!!)

20. Once rinsed 4-6 times, squeeze vegetables and transfer to a dry pot (no heat yet!)

20b. Don’t forget to check on boiling meats/cow feet and boiling peppers. Add water/turn heat down where necessary!

21. Repeat steps #9b-12 for the remainder vegetables (except Spinach!), Uziza ...

22. and Nchawu ‘scent’ leaves

23. Once done cleaning the leaves, they should all be in a dry pot with no heat. Turn heat on to medium, stir often to mix up vegetables. Leave on heat for 15 minutes.

24. While vegetables are on stove, meat should be tender. Transfer from stock into bowl with slotted spoon

25. Lightly deep fry (or bake) boiled meat

26. Return to boiling peppers, should be cooked at this point. Add remaining 3 knorr cubes, stir in thoroughly

27. Add fried meats and boiled cow feet to cooked stew till thoroughly coated

28. Turn heat off on vegetables and add to stew

29. Mix vegetables into stew thoroughly. Let cook over low-medium heat for 15 minutes. (Taste/chew vegetables to see if it’s tender/soft enough)

30. While the soup is cooking/simmering away, rinse and drain frozen spinach

31. Add drained spinach to soup

32. Mix spinach into stew thoroughly, let cook another 5-10 minutes over low heat

33. Once it’s done simmering, you have Edikaikong!

Ingredient Info:

These vegetables can be purchased from your local African grocer or some online vendors. The vegetables will be marked by their name so don’t ‘cram’ what they look like o! Lol

1. Ukazi/Okazi leaves are also known as Afang leaves and are an ingredient in the popular Igbo dish, Ugba or African Salad. From my understanding, the Calabar, Efik and Ibibios call it Afang, while Igbos call it Ukazi/Okazi.
2. Ugwu/Ugu is known in English as ‘Fluted Pumpkin leaves,’ and is believed to have great nutritional values and is often used in cooking soups.
3. Nchawu, more commonly known as ‘Scent’ leaves are just that, scented or fragrant leaves. Much like you would consider Basil or Bay leaves to be scented leaves. If I’m not mistaken, they are also known as ‘Effirin’ in Yoruba.
4. Uziza leaves are another kind of aromatic leaf and are often used to add flavor to stews and soups.
5. Oha leaves — I have nothing, help a sister out!

Notes:

1. As I mentioned in the beginning, Edikaikong is a very rich and labor intensive soup to make. I would recommend it for special occasions or once a month or so as a treat.
2. You don’t have to use all 6 vegetables, you can use just Spinach and Ugwu leaves if you’d rather not be bothered with the rest. I think they go well together though, but it’s up to you.
3. Edikaikong also uses more Palm Oil than normal, however, due to the density of the soup, at least 95-0-95% of it is absorbed by the vegetables, so you won’t have too much (if any) oil sitting at the top of the soup. Canola oil is completely optional. If you want to use it, but can’t find it, Vegetable or Corn oil will also work.
4. All of the vegetables used (except Spinach) are very dark green, so your soup will be very dark green. Don’t be alarmed when you see this, there’s nothing wrong with your soup!
5. It’s VERY important to rinse the dried vegetables, because they contain sediments/sand from when they were dried and packaged. If you do not rinse and drain those vegetables 4-6 times, I promise that you will taste grit/sand when you’re eating the finished product. That won’t be appealing, especially if you have to serve the dish. So, don’t be lazy and skip those steps, if it’s too tasking for you, ask someone who can help, to help. I can’t stress this enough!

Substitutes:

1. You can use any kind of meat you like: Goat meat, beef, shaki/tripe, kpomo, cow’s foot,fresh or smoked turkey, chicken, fish, etc.
2. I’m not a huge fan of smoked/dried fish, so I tend to omit it in my cooking, however, if you like that, by all means add it!
3. You can also add Periwinkles/Ishan or snails to the dish or add a combination of all the aformentioned!
4. If you can find Waterleaves, you can use that instead of Spinach.
5. Someone once mentioned in the comments on another post, that a friend of theirs used Kale. I wouldn’t recommend this as Kale is a bitter vegetable, maybe even more so than Ugwu.
6. You don’t have to eat it with Iyan/Pounded yam, it’s vegetable soup, it can go with eba, amala or even rice. Up to you really. If you’re serving guests though, I’d recommend Pounded Yam or Semovita.