Okoho — Benue State, Nigeria

Okoho is a soup built around the okoho stick, drawn from the plant Cissus populnea, which is soaked or pounded to release a thick, slippery mucilage that gives the soup its defining texture, closer in feel to okra soup than to a clear broth. Among Idoma cooks it is prepared without added oil, relying on meat and stockfish for richness instead. It is reported chiefly from the Idoma people of Benue State in central Nigeria, where it holds a central place at weddings, burial ceremonies, birthdays and other gatherings. The same plant and soup turn up under other names among neighboring groups: Igbo and Igala speakers also call it okoho, the stick itself is known as ajara or orogbolo among Yoruba speakers of the north and south, and the Hausa call it dafara. Preparation starts with soaking or pounding the okoho stick to draw out its mucilage, which is strained into a slippery liquid. Meat, often bush meat such as grasscutter, alongside stockfish, is boiled separately until tender, then combined with the okoho liquid. Crayfish, chili pepper and salt season the pot, which is left to simmer gently, without oil, until the soup thickens to its characteristic ropy consistency. Differences between one pot and the next come mostly from the meat used and how much mucilage is drawn from the stick: game meats such as grasscutter or alligator give a heavier, gamier soup, while others lean on smoked meat or stockfish alone. Some cooks favor a thinner, more pourable soup, others let it thicken further, and it is almost always spooned over pounded yam, though semolina, eba or yam flour are also used.