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Abak Atama Soup
Posted on 10 February, 2013 by 1Qfoodplatter | 21 Comments | Nigerian Soups
Palm fruit as a base for soup is quite common in the south east and delta regions of
Nigeria. I also found out that in Ghana, Cameroun, and Cote dIvoire the use of palm
fruit sauce is common. You find canned palm fruit sauce in shops these days.
One of the food items on my last month trip to Calabar was Eyop (palm fruit). The
ones from the Watt market in Calabar are so fresh compared to the ones we find in
Lagos and they are cheap! Trust me I chartered quite some quantity to make at
least six pots of soup. All I did was wash and parboil for 5 mins, cool and freeze.
Actually if you freeze fresh palm fruit without parboiling the oil/ soup sticky to the
tongue .

Atama is a vegetable . Most Calabar women in the market know this.

This is what brings the characteristic aroma to the soup coupled with uyayak, an
aromatic spice.

Abak on the other hand is the palm fruit sauce, so the name of the soup is derived
from both the sauce and the vegetable you add, so naturally there many types of

Abak.
One thing I can promise with Abak Atama is that you can hardly go wrong with the
end result. If you happen to end up with some palm fruit sauce that will not thicken
easily,just sprinkle some Egusi in it. Bingo, your soup gets thick.
If you are on a weight reduction diet you dont want to make this a daily meal.
But again eating is all about variety in controlled portions. Enjoy this soup which is
quite similar to Banga from the Delta region.
Recipe
1 big derica cup Palm fruit
1 medium bunch Atama( shredded very finely)
10 pieces Beef
10 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
1table spoon dry Pepper
2tablets crayfish seasoning
1 beef seasoning( to boil meat)
Salt to taste
Method
1, Boil the Eyop (palm fruit) for about 25 minutes
2, 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

3, Pour about 11/2 bottles of water( 1.5 liters) into the palm fruit and using your
hand squeeze out the juice from the pulp
4, Sieve the juice into a pot and set aside
5,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.
6, Pour beef into pot of palm fruit sauce and bring to boil

7, Add the stock fish head, Pomo(cow skin), periwinkle , smoked prawn and smoked
fish
8, Add the Uyayak, dry pepper ground crayfish, seasoning and salt to taste
9, Cook until it starts to thicken and add your Atama.

10, Add salt to taste and cook until soup thickens to the desired consistency( just
like afia Efere or ofe nasala)
11, Serve with pounded yam ,rice or Eba

Tags: abak, abak atama soup, atama, calabar, eyop, naija soup, nigerian
soup,palmfruit, pomo, uyayak.

Egg and Bread bites

Crack and dye Eggs

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Comments

adetola adeyinka
11 February, 2013
Reply
I am going to cook this in the coming week. I will give you feedback.

1Qfoodplatter
11 February, 2013
Reply
Hi,Adetola. Looking forward to your feedback

adetola adeyinka
19 February, 2013
Reply
Good Morning Ma. I tried the soup this weekend. I sent you a mail with the picture
attached. Thank you very much.

1Qfoodplatter
19 February, 2013

Reply
Hi, Adetola. Glad to see you tried the dish. Please resend the picture as I did not
receive it

adetola adeyinka
19 February, 2013
I sent it to: 1qfoodplatter@gmail.com. I resent it a few minutes ago.

sinmi
11 February, 2013
Reply
pls d english for name for atama n uyayak? one more thing, i crave variety of dishes
and also love ur post but its difficult to get some item as they are named in native
lang. kindly post common names of vegetable and spices in ur recipe for easy
identiificatn. thanks

1Qfoodplatter
11 February, 2013
Reply
Hi,Sinmi. Thank you for the feedback.Uyayak is known as Aidan fruit. Atama on the
other hand is indegenous to the Calabar people.I have not found an English name
for it. As much as possible we will get the English names for the ingredients where
possible .

Abasiama Obi-Chinedu
11 September, 2013
Reply
Another thing I think you can do is ask for calabar women in the market, ask them
for the spices/leaves, they know and will give you/direct you to those who sell.

1Qfoodplatter
11 September, 2013
Reply
Hi, Abasiama. I feel you.lol

1Qfoodplatter
11 September, 2013
Reply
Hi Abasiama. Thanks for you contribution.

Ajiri Avae
11 February, 2013
Reply
This soup is also called Banga. Thanks for the recipe.

Emerald
26 February, 2013

Reply
Keep it up sista, Just love this page, Love cooking and abak is my favourite

1Qfoodplatter
26 February, 2013
Reply
Emerald,thank you for the compliment. You will sure enjoy your Abak . Happy
cooking.

pug
12 June, 2013
Reply
honestly i have tried all means to be a silent reader bt ds site is just a compelling
type, one of the things dt makes ds site a unique one is the neatness, i mean total
to the core!!!!!!! , aside just lets talk about the FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY, very clean
background, enviroment,& charming colours, perhaps lots of people doesnt put ths
into consederation bt believe me it counts a lot.we can equaly take a walk to
culinary sites in youtube & see wt i mean . in d commercial studies this is refered to
as a PROVOCATIVE ADVERTSMENT

1Qfoodplatter
12 June, 2013
Reply
Hi,Sarah. What can I say about this complements:)I am just expressing my self
through food. Glad you like the blog.

PUG
12 June, 2013
Reply
aunty what other name do we have for atama vegetables or how else could it be
described?

1Qfoodplatter
12 June, 2013
Reply
Hi, Sarah. Unfortunately I am not aware of any other name for Atama. But I do know
that Beletete that is used for Banga soup is a good alternative.

oby
22 August, 2013
Reply
atama is a vegetable on it own, the best people to ask are akwa ibom or calabar
indigenes
is normally prepared with palm kernel, is very nice

1Qfoodplatter
22 August, 2013
Reply
Hi Oby. I know about Atama because I come from Akwa Ibom state.

Abasiama Obi-Chinedu
11 September, 2013
Reply
I so miss my mom right now. Uyo is shouting my name very lightly. I hated this soup
growing up but now, Id give anything to eat it. Abiong adong mi tutu! Lol

blessing
20 September, 2013
Reply
should the uyayak be grounded or put as it is?
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