draw soup — South East, Nigeria

Draw soup is the name given, across the southeast and southwest of Nigeria, to soups whose broth becomes noticeably thick and slightly stringy — it “draws” — because of the vegetable used to bind it: fresh okra, ground ogbono seeds, or ewedu (jute) leaves. This version is built on okra, the most common of the three in the southeast, grated or chopped fine so it releases its natural mucilage as it cooks. It is reported from the South East region of Nigeria, largely Igbo-speaking territory, where okra soup of this kind is an everyday dish rather than an occasional one. Ogbono and ewedu versions of draw soup belong more to neighboring areas and to Yoruba cooking further west, where ewedu in particular is closely associated with amala. The soup starts with meat, stockfish and dried fish simmered in a well-seasoned stock, into which palm oil, ground crayfish and pepper are added. The grated okra goes in toward the end and is stirred steadily rather than left to sit, which controls how thick and stringy the finished broth becomes; leafy vegetables such as ugu are folded in last to keep their color and bite. What sets this version apart from the ogbono or ewedu versions of draw soup is both the vegetable base and the resulting texture: okra gives a soup that is thick but still pourable, while ogbono tends toward a denser, more elastic result and ewedu toward a smoother, more slippery one. All are eaten the same way, scooped up with a swallow such as eba, pounded yam or amala rather than with a spoon.