Recipe peculiar to my country, bitter leaf soup prepared by @udyliciouz

Introduction

Hello wonderful steemians and friends from all over the world. I am excited to take part in this week's Engagment Challenge. In this particular Challenge, we were asked to promote a recipe that is peculiar to our different countries of the world.
My country Nigeria is blessed with so much good foods, drinks, vegetables and fruits which one can use to make a special recipe.

In this challenge, I choose to prepare and promote bitter leaf soup.
This soup is eaten by majority of Nigerians and it is also served at special occasions like traditional marriage.

What is that Special recipe peculiar to your country? It could be special drinks, desserts, or any other delicacy.

The special recipe peculiar to my country is bitter leaf soup

_{My delicious bitter leaf soup}

You may wonder why I choose a leaf that is bitter as a recipe to promote.
The leaf is bitter in nature but once we Nigerian want to use it in cooking soup, we normally wash out the bitter taste and enjoy the rest of the leaf.

Is there any history attached to it? Explain.

As a child who grow up in a family where bitter leaf is cooked as one of the favourite soups, though the soup taste good but I was not convinced to why my mother like cooking this soup, until I asked her which she told me some of the amazing health benefits this special soup has. She also mentioned that those who make it a habit to eat bitter leaf soup will stay for years without visiting the hospital that the leaf used in preparing this soup is medicinal. As i grew up I decided to research about this soup and the result I got was amazing.

Would you like to know some of it's health benefits?
I believe yes is your answer.

Read below to see what regular eating of bitter leaf Soup can do for you.

1. Bitter leaf soup when eaten regularly helps in regulating blood cholesterol level in the body which is a risk factor for heart attack and stroke.
2. The leaf used in this soup can be used to treat stomach pains, feverish condition as well as joint aches.
3. It is scientifically proven that bitter leaf contains anti-cancer properties like andrographolide compound which is effective in treating gastric cancers, prostate cancers and colon.
4. Studies have also shown that bitter leaf extract is capable of boosting the immune system and inhibiting tumor growth.

Do you think you can do without taking them for some time?

I don't think I can stay in my country Nigeria without eating this soup for sometime. The only reason that would have made me stay without his soup is, if I am in a foreign land where this leaf is not available. But aside that, bitter leaf Soup remains my favourite soup.

How is it prepared? Show us the steps required for its preparation or you can buy from a restaurant and promote the business.

Wow! This is an interesting part I will gladly show the steps used in preparing this delicious meal.

Here comes my recipe

S/N	Items	Price in Naira	Price in Steem
1.	Meat	#1500	12.5
2.	Bitter leaf	#100	0.9
3.	Water leaf	#200	1.3
4.	Grey fish	#200	1.3
5.	Perewinkle	#100	0.9
6.	Oil	#400	3.3
7.	Fresh pepper	#100	0.9
8.	Stock fish	#500	4.2
9.	Ice fish	#700	5.8
10.	Melon	#400	3.3
Total	-	#4200	35

Note: Some items used in cooking this soup not included in the list were available in the house.

Step1:

Thoroughly wash the meat after coming back from the market to prevent any trace of sand in it. After washing, put the meat in the pot and add pepper, salt, onion and Maggie cube to it. In this cooking, I used Maggie cube. There are other cubes available. After putting those things to the meat, I used spoon to turn it so that the ingredients will mixed with the meat before steaming it.
Allow the meat to steam for 10 minutes and then add already washed stock fish to the meat and cover the pot again for the next 5 to 10 minutes. Some people used to steam the stock fish and meat separately but I often steam it the way I am explaining in this post.

When the meat and the stock fish is soft, I
washed ice fish and also add pepper, Maggie cube, salt and onion to it. Put small quantity of water and then steam it too. I steamed the ice fish for 10 minutes and when I confirm that it was done, I
off the fire and move ahead to the next step.

Step 2

I wash and chopped the water leave to the desired shapes that I wanted. I made it very tiny. While chopping your own, you can make it more tiny that mine. It a matter of choice, there is no rule to the exact sizes.

Step 3

When I was done with steaming, washing and chopping of water leave, I pound fresh pepper, grey fish and washed Perewinkle.

Step 4

When I finish getting all the ingredients ready, I turn the meat and the fish and put all together, add water leave, salt, onion and oil. Cover it to steam for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, I put greyfish and Perewinkle, and after 3 minutes, I put melon to the soup and turn it.

_{When melon was added to the Soup}

When I finish adding melon, cover the pot and allow it to cook for 5 minutes. When I noticed that the melon has mixed well with the water leave, I added bitter leaf to it.

_{See when bitter leaf was added}

After I added bitter leaf to it, I turned it, put Maggie cube, salt and added a little quantity of oil.
I cover it and allow it to steam for 3 minutes.
I tasted it to confirm that everything is in the right proportion.
When I tasted, I gave myself a tick of right and then bring down my delicious pot of soup.

What are your recommendations for others about this food.

My recommendation goes this way:

• I will recommend that if you are not a Nigerian citizen and you visit Nigeria, please request for bitter leaf soup. A trial will convince you.

• I strongly recommend that nursing mothers should try and be eating this soup for it will help them to lactate well. It's tested and trusted.
  To clear any doubt, you can research about this fact.

• I am recommending this soup to diabetic patients because it will help reduce thier sugar level.

Conclusion

I really appreciate this community @steem4nigeria for giving us this opportunity to promote our local recipe.
I appreciate fellow steemians who will find this post interesting. I used this medium to invite @manuelhooks, @goodbest and @mesola to participate in this Contest.