Afang — Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Afang soup, not to be confused with okazi soup or ukazi soup from Igbo cuisine, is a vegetable soup reported from the Ibibio people of Akwa Ibom, in southern Nigeria. It is built around finely chopped afang leaves combined with waterleaf, cooked down with assorted meat, stockfish, dried fish and palm oil. The soup is shared with the neighboring Efik people of Calabar in Cross River State, and it is widely known well beyond Akwa Ibom, appearing in several regions of Nigeria and of West Africa more broadly. To prepare it, assorted meat, stockfish and dried fish are first boiled in a seasoned stock until tender. Palm oil is heated with ground crayfish and pepper, the stock and meats are added, and the waterleaf is stirred in first so it wilts and releases its liquid before the tougher, finely chopped afang leaves go in, thickening the soup as it simmers. Cooks vary the ratio of afang to waterleaf, the choice of meats and fish, and whether periwinkles or other seafood are added, but the combination of the two leaves cooked in a palm-oil-based stock with meat and dried fish is what is generally recognized as afang soup.