Edikang Ikong — South South, Nigeria

Edikang ikong is a vegetable soup built mainly from pumpkin leaves and waterleaf, cooked down with palm oil until thick, and enriched with a wide range of meats and fish. It is counted among the more generously stocked soups of Nigerian cooking, given the number of proteins it typically carries. It is reported from Nigeria's South South, where it is associated with the Efik and Ibibio communities, and it is widely eaten and cooked across the southern part of the country, especially at festive gatherings, since the ingredients involved are comparatively costly. To prepare it, beef, dried fish, bush meat, dried crayfish, beef tripe and beef skin are first simmered together with onion and pepper to build a stock. Palm oil, pumpkin leaves and waterleaf are added along with periwinkles, and the pot is left to cook down until the leaves soften and the liquid thickens into a dense soup. Within the wider family of West African leafy soups, this version stands out for the number of proteins layered into a single pot and for the specific pairing of pumpkin leaves with waterleaf, which gives it a slightly different texture from soups built on a single leafy vegetable. It is customarily eaten with a swallow such as pounded yam or fufu rather than rice.