Ghana: Mama’s prawn and tilapia light soup

Mama makes light soup that is naturally fat-free (no need to add oil) but extremely heart warming with flavours that will awaken your senses. We would not ordinarily mix up fish with prawns, but ingredients such as these are readily available for those living a cosmopolitan lifestyle. Why not give it a go? In fact, during my trip to Portugal last year, I discovered they have something somewhat similar, a dish called cataplana, and yes, they eat every part of the fish, including the eyes!!!! Yummmmm!

The deal with tilapia, there are natural fats found in tilapia, which is an oily fish rich with omega 3 fatty acids, however these are healthy and considered essential fatty acids.

Onto the recipe.

2 medium onions or 1 large one
3 very ripe large tomatoes
1 large carrot (optional)

2 tilapia’s (approx 500 grams each of cleaned up and cut to sizeable pieces)
250g tiger prawns (fresh and prepared ready to cook in shells)

6 baby aubergines (whole and heads trimmed) We normally use “garden eggs”, which I will tell you more about in another post.

12 okra (with ends trimmed)

1 scotch bonnet pepper or kpakpo shito

Ginger
1.75 litres of fish or chicken stock.

Place the whole onion, pepper, tomatoes and carrot in the pot and top with the stock. Cover, bring to the boil and reduce to simmer till vegetables are soft and tender. Remove the vegetables. Add the prawns, okra and aubergines to the stock and simmer for 10 minutes. Blend the vegetables and ginger in a food processor and return to the soup. Add the tilapia to the soup, bring to the boil then reduce to simmer till the fish is cooked. Check seasoning to your taste.

Serve with your favourite carbs such as boiled sliced yam or potatoes. Traditionally, this is served with fufu. Bon appetite.