River state native soup is one of my favorite Nigerian soup, it happens to be my favorite native soup.
You can follow either my written instruction or the embedded video at the bottom of the page, I make videos for the majority of my recipes on this site.
I grew up in River state Nigeria, did both my primary and secondary education in a very popular part of the state. During this time, I tasted almost every indigenous food and also learned to make quite a number of them. The good thing is that they share similar recipes with the Igbos.
So if you are dating an Ikwerre guy or married to a man/woman from River State Nigeria you can go ahead and serve him/her some of our Igbo foods on this page.
Let’s get back to the topic of the day, River state native soup… here goes… Gbam!!!
Frankly, I can’t give a detailed account of the origin of this soup but what I do know is that it is very popular in River state and it is served in major restaurants and eateries. Although, they avoid some of the expensive ingredients like stock fish, ngolo and shrimps.
For some reason I just like to try new recipes once they appealed to me, I like to ask questions and try them out in my own kitchen, that is perhaps the reason I have learned to make virtually all the Foods Eaten In Nigeria.
How To Make River State Native Soup
Below are the ingredients for making the popular native soup in River state Nigeria, like I always assert; the ingredients would serve about 6×2 people, you can increase or decrease the quantity of each ingredient depending on the number people would be eating your food.
You can make this soup as simple as possible, if you can’t find the ngolo and prowns where you live, you can leave them out. I can’t find the english name for Ngolo, is it clams?
- 1KG of meat
- 10 pieces of stock fish ear (nti okporoko)
- 2 cups of sliced uziza leaves
- 2 medium size dry fish
- Cocoa yam as thickener (see image)
- 15-20cl of palm oil
- 2-3 cubes of maggi or knorr
- 1-2 cups of periwinkles
- 1-2 cups of ngolo
- 1 cup of ground crayfish
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- two handful of fresh prowns
- 2 spoons of ofor (alternative thickener)

What you find above is a plate containing Ngolo, Periwinkles (isam) and prowns, the exact way they are sold in Nigerian markets. You can purchase them from every major Nigerian markets, especially in the states sorrounded by water.
The cocoayam should be about 1KG, the ofor serves as alternative thickener (incase the cocoayam didn’t thicken the soup), in most cases, you wouldn’t use it (the ofor)
How to Prepare Nigerian Native soup
You might wanna start by parboiling the shrimps, wash and parboil with a small pot, add half cup of water, a cube of maggi and a pinch of salt, allow to boil for up to 5 minutes, remove the head and set aside in a clean plate.
STEP 1
I like to start by parboiling the meat with all the necessary ingredients, most cooks forget that parboiling the meat and obtaining the stock (water left after parboiling) is an important part of Nigerian cooking process.
I like to parboil the meat with just 2 cubes of maggi, 1 bulb of onions, salt and maybe a sachet of onga classic (a very popular Nigerian spice for soup). My choice of meat is hard to cook, takes about 50-60 minutes before you commence with the rest of the cooking.
Step 2
Use this time to prepare the other ingredients; wash and slice the uziza leaves.
Soak the stock fish and dry fish with boiled water and wash thoroughly to remove sand and center bone. Grind the crayfish and fresh pepper also, you can grind together or grind separately.
Step 3
Add the washed dry fish/stock fish in the boiling meat on fire, after about 30-50 minutes of cooking just the meat. Once they are soft and the water is almost dried (about 1 cup left) add about 5-7 cups of water, palm oil and the ground crayfish. This step was visually demonstrated in the video below, so if you like watching better than reading you can scroll down to see the video.
Allow the soup to cook for another ten minutes before adding salt to taste, a cube of maggi. Maggi is a natural food sweetener, used in making almost all the {foods eaten in Nigeria} you can refer to our ingredients catalogue for an in-depth understanding of all the ingredients used in making Nigerian foods.
Step 4
Add the washed/cleaned ngolo, stir, add the cocoayam, allow to dissolve in 8-10 minutes, if it is still very watery you can add a spoon of ofor, cook for three minutes before adding the periwinkles, prown and sliced uziza leaves which is likely the last ingredient while making River state native soup.
Allow to simmer for another five minutes and you just made Nigerian’s most popular native soup.
The video is that of an earlier version of this soup, it should give you a clue as to how to make river state native soup, I used ofor as the thickener instead of cocoayam; I also ommited the ngolo.
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Continue Reading
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compare River State Native Soup & other Nigerian soups
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Here is how to Make Nigerian Onugbu Soup
Nigerian Ogbono (draw) Soup
Comments
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July 15, 2013
I am very much interested in Ikwerre Recipes. I am an American woman but married to a man from River state, Nigeria. I just want to be able to make some of His tribal recipes. Thanks
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July 15, 2013
I have been trying some of the recipes on the (50 Delicious Nigerian Recipes) and they all seem to turn out quite perfect. I think you are doing such a wonderful job. The recipes, videos, emails are all very helpful. I am also from river state, Opopo but married to a man from Cross River state, Thanks for your wonderful work. You are doing great.
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July 15, 2013
Please where do I find a Nigerian girl that cooks exactly like you. I can marry her immediately
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March 13, 2017
Lol… Okoro… Ure welcome to learn from me.. 😀
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May 2, 2017
Thanks for sharing Ma and may God bless you
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May 20, 2017
Am a Nigeria and trust me I cook really good
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September 5, 2017
Because of Food you will marry a wrong girl? Shine your eye before you talk this kind of talk next time.
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November 20, 2017
His eyes are wide open, so no need for him to shine eyes again he can only shine to get a good cook like chy.
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June 14, 2018
Am here
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July 15, 2013
@ Okoro, so you want to marry a great girl?
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July 16, 2013
just wanted to ask if i can use both the ofor and achi together in the same soup instead of using just achi,can i also add ofor? and how do i go about that?
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February 1, 2017
For me I would say use one because they both have different tast. To cook this soup the best is to use ofor.
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July 23, 2013
you rock! keep it up!
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August 8, 2013
hi Chy, thanks for your mails on how to prepare most nigerian food.
I really appreciate ur effort. But i wil like u to give me the recipe for the rivers native soup and method of preparation cuz i cant watch
the video with ma phone. Thanks and God bless! -
August 21, 2013
Keep up the good work Ma. Please can I use cocoyam in place of achi or ofor? Thanks!
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March 7, 2017
I am a Rivers girl, kalabari, The original recipe is cocoyam actually and substituted to Ofor yes achi serves the same purpose as thickener but has a different taste. Additionally we don’t use Stockfish in making our native soup.
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March 22, 2018
Hello Chi. I am a kalabari woman, we have two native soups. Dry fish native and fresh fish native. In the fresh fish native you we use all kinds of sea foods including ngolo, fresh oporo(shrims), fresh imgbe( don’t know the English name lolz), and of course fresh fish. In the dry Fish native you we use dry fish, stock fish, pkomo and some sea foods.
But we use uziza leaf for both soups.-
October 12, 2018
Thanks dear mgbe should be oyster right?
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October 31, 2018
Fresh Igmbe(oyster)
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September 22, 2018
Bio, God bless you. The Kalabari’s don’t use stock fish for our native soup. And bitter leaf is better.
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September 18, 2013
Thks for your wonderful work, I have really learnt a lot from your recipes.I am a rivers woman and I want to correct a little mistake about our native soup.we use lots of seafood and the main thicker is cocoyam, people only use ofor or achi for convenience. once again I really appreciate your effort.
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October 1, 2013
I made a very delicious native soup using the recipe u provide on the site…I was so proud of myself and I also wanted to thank you because my husband loved it.
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October 17, 2013
Hi i am so happy ,now i can cook any type of meal i want thanks your are my dream come through.
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November 3, 2013
Hi Chy, thanks for the mails. May God continue to bless and increase ur wisdom.
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December 4, 2013
U r n did a god sent,tks 4 de gud wok u r doing,may de gud god bless u,tks.
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January 15, 2014
Hi madam, pls I want to oder for the e book guide n I don’t know how to go about it. Also for some time now u have not been sending me news letters, secondly pls I want u to trow more ligt on vegetable stew used for eating white rice n more foods that are less starchy. Thanks n God bless!
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January 26, 2014
Hi ify, just to commend u on the wonderful job of bringing our local foods to the doorstep of countless nigerians me inclusive. Keep up the good work.
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January 27, 2014
hi, pls can i use pumpkin leaves in place of uziza leaves, because where I’m at i can’t get hold of uziza seeds and leaves. thanks
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February 15, 2014
Ur d best,keep up the good work. Tnx
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February 19, 2014
Hi Chy U rock. Thanks for ur efforts.