Atama Soup is made from palm fruit juice and atama leaves. palm fruit as a base is quite common in the south east and delta regions of Nigeria.

Atama is a vegetable Most ‘calabar’ women in the market know this. its brings special aroma to the soup coupled with uyayak and aromatic spice.

Recipe For Atama Soup

1 big derica cup of palm fruit
1 medium bunch atama(shredded very finely)
8 pieces beef
8 pieces pomo
1 cup periwinkle (in shell)
4 medium pieces crab
1 stock fish head
1 medium size smoked fish
1/2 cup smoked prawn
1/2 piece uyayak
1 table spoon dry pepper
2 tablets crayfish seasoning
1 beef seasoning (boil meat)
salt to taste

Method

Boil the eyop (palm fruit) for about 25 minutes
Pound to separate the flesh from the nut.this takes some experience else you might end up breaking up all the nuts. you dont hit the fruit too hard

pour about 11/2 bottles of water (1.5 liters) into the palm fruit and using your hand to squeeze out the juice from the pulp sieve the juice into a pot and set aside
season the beef with seasoning,salt,and some dry pepper and steam till half cooked.the rest of the cooking will be completed when cooking the soup
pour beef into pot of plam fruit sauce and bring to boil.

add the stock fish head, pomo (cow skin), periwinkle, smoked prawn and smoked fish
add the uyayak,dry pepper ground crayfish,seasoning and salt to taste
cook until its starts to thicken and add your atama.

add salt to taste and cook until soup thickens to the desired consistency (just like afia efere or ofe nasala)

Hmmm Yummy you can now serve with pounded yam,rice or eba

Credit : Ify’s Kitchen