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Rich palm fruit cream, banga spices and fresh fish, written step by step for an American kitchen, whether you start from fresh palm fruit or from a can.
§ The plate
Fresh-fish banga in a clay pot, served here with eba rather than starch.
Photo: Justdifference, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Go to the contact form →INC-USA · The Itsekiri Kitchen
Total 2 hr 10 min with fresh palm fruit (about 1 hr 15 min with canned cream) · Difficulty: moderate
itsekirinationalcongress.org/culture/food/banga-soup
Amounts are for 6 servings. Pick your servings and units; everything recalculates.
Makes 6 servingscups, spoons and pounds
Choose one path. Fresh or frozen palm fruit gives the brightest soup; a can is the honest weeknight shortcut.
SwapFrozen palm fruit works as well as fresh. Thaw it in a bowl of water first.
BuyAfrican and Caribbean grocers, usually in the freezer. Some sell fresh fruit in season. Ask for palm nuts or banga.
SwapHot tap water heated in a kettle. Hot enough to be uncomfortable, not boiling.
SwapSold as palm nut cream, palm soup base, palm cream concentrate or sauce graine. Check that the only ingredient is palm fruit; skip cans with added seasoning.
BuyAfrican and Caribbean grocers, international aisles, and online Nigerian and Ghanaian grocers.
These are what make it banga. Families differ on which they use and how much, so treat these amounts as a starting point.
SwapNo true substitute. A banga spice mix that lists beletete is the best stand-in.
BuyAfrican grocers that serve Delta customers, often hung in small bags as banga leaves or banga spice. Online Nigerian grocers ship them dried.
SwapLeave it out rather than guess at a substitute. The soup will be a little less rounded.
BuySold beside beletete at African grocers and in online banga spice packs.
SwapUse a pre-mixed banga spice instead.
BuyAfrican grocers and online Nigerian grocers, whole or ground.
SwapUse a pre-mixed banga spice instead.
BuyAfrican grocers and online Nigerian grocers.
SwapMixes vary by maker. Smell it: it should be leafy and warm, not just peppery.
BuySold as banga spice or banga soup spice at African grocers and online.
SwapThai basil or Italian basil. Scent leaf is a basil cousin.
BuyFrozen or dried at African grocers; Thai basil at Asian markets and most supermarkets.
Fish is the heart of the Itsekiri pot. Buy bone-in pieces: they hold together in the cream.
SwapUS farm-raised catfish is ideal. Tilapia or croaker steaks also work. Avoid thin fillets; they break up.
BuyAsk the fish counter at an African, Caribbean, Asian or Southern supermarket to cut a whole catfish into steaks. Frozen catfish steaks are common at Asian markets.
SwapSmoked catfish is the classic. Smoked whiting or smoked mackerel are the usual American stand-ins.
BuyAfrican and Caribbean grocers; smoked mackerel is often in the supermarket seafood case.
SwapSkip it if you cannot find it. Add an extra piece of smoked fish instead.
BuyAfrican grocers, often pre-cut in bags.
SwapAny large shrimp. Shell-on gives more flavor; peeled is fine.
BuyAny supermarket, fresh or frozen.
SwapLeave them out. The soup is complete without them.
BuyFrozen at some African grocers.
SwapGround dried shrimp from an Asian or Latin market. It is stronger, so start with two-thirds as much.
BuyEvery African grocer, and online.
Season at the end, once the fish and crayfish have given up their salt.
SwapHabanero peppers, which are close cousins.
BuyMost supermarkets, Caribbean and Latin grocers.
SwapA pinch more crayfish and salt.
BuySupermarket international aisles and African grocers.
First make the cream, by Path A or Path B. Then cook the soup. Every step has a time and a sign that it is ready.
Path A Fresh or frozen palm fruit · about 70 min
Pick off any stalks, grit and blackened or shrivelled fruit. Rinse the fruit in two or three changes of cold water. If frozen, thaw it in a bowl of water first.
Ready whenThe rinse water runs clear and every fruit is glossy red-orange or dark red.
Cover the fruit with water by 2 in (5 cm), bring to a boil, then simmer partly covered. Top up with hot water if it drops below the fruit.
Ready whenSqueeze one fruit between finger and thumb: the flesh slips off the hard nut in one go.
Drain the fruit and tip it into a mortar, or into a heavy pot to use a potato masher. Pound or mash with gentle, rocking strokes to loosen the flesh from the nuts. Do not smash the nuts open: the kernels inside taste bitter and oily. Do not put whole nuts in a blender; they can crack the kernels and the blades.
Ready whenThe fibres stand away from pale, bare nuts and the pulp looks like coarse orange wool.
Pour about 3 cups (720 ml) of the hot water over the pulp. Wearing gloves, squeeze handfuls of the fibres hard, working the cream out into the water. Pour everything through a sieve into the soup pot, pressing the fibres against the mesh.
Ready whenThe cream in the pot is thick, opaque and deep orange.
Return the fibres and nuts to the bowl, add 2 cups (480 ml) hot water, squeeze and sieve again into the same pot. If the liquid is still strongly coloured, do a third press with the last cup. Discard the fibres and nuts.
Ready whenThe water from the last press is only faintly orange and the fibres look pale.
Path B Canned palm nut cream · about 5 min
Stir the can well; the oil often sits on top. Scrape it into the soup pot and whisk in the hot water a cup at a time until it looks like single cream. Stop there; you can add more later, but you cannot take it away.
Ready whenSmooth, pourable and evenly orange, with no lumps at the bottom of the pot.
Canned cream is already cooked, so you lose some of the fresh, fruity smell of pressed fruit, and it can taste flatter. It also needs less time to thicken. Make up for it with good fish and well-cooked spices, and cut the cooking in step 1 below to about 15–20 minutes.
Then Cook the soup · about 1 hr
Bring the cream to a boil, then simmer uncovered over medium heat. Stir from the bottom every few minutes so it does not catch. Meanwhile, salt the catfish lightly and soak the dried fish.
Ready whenThe cream has thickened and coats the back of a spoon, and a thin layer of red oil is starting to show at the edges.
Add the oburunbebe pieces, the crushed beletete, the ataiko and the irugeje (or the banga spice mix). Add the dried fish now if you are using it. Stir and keep simmering.
Ready whenThe kitchen smells leafy and warm rather than just fruity.
Stir in the ground crayfish, the peppers and the onion if you use it. Lay in the smoked fish and periwinkles. From here on, stir gently or swirl the pot instead.
Ready whenThe smoked fish has softened and the soup tastes savory, not just of palm fruit.
Nestle the catfish steaks into the soup so they are covered. Do not stir. Swirl the pot once or twice and spoon soup over any pieces that poke out.
Ready whenThe flesh is opaque all the way through and lifts cleanly from the bone.
Tuck the shrimp into the soup.
Ready whenThey have just turned pink and curled into a loose C. A tight O means overcooked.
Taste, then add salt and the seasoning cube if you use it. Scatter in the scent leaf, take the pot off the heat and let it rest for 5 minutes. Fish out the oburunbebe pieces before serving.
Ready whenThick enough to cling to a piece of starch, with oil glistening on top but not pooling.
The problems cooks most often run into making banga far from home.
WhyThe cream boiled too hard, cooked too long, or was pressed very thick. Some oil on top is normal, and many families like to see it.
FixLower the heat, stir in a splash of hot water and simmer gently for a few minutes until it comes back together. If there is still more oil than you like, spoon some off the surface.
WhyNot enough cooking before the fish went in, or too much water in the presses or the can.
FixLift the fish out onto a plate, simmer the soup uncovered until it coats a spoon, then return the fish. We do not recommend flour or other thickeners.
WhyOver-ripe or old palm fruit, a can past its best, or soup that sat warm too long.
FixThere is no real cure for soured cream; start again with fresher fruit. For next time, buy from a busy shop, check dates on cans, and refrigerate leftovers within two hours.
WhyCracked kernels when pounding, too much beletete or oburunbebe, or soup scorched on the bottom.
FixTake out the oburunbebe pieces, loosen with a little hot water or extra cream, and taste again. If it has scorched, pour the soup into a clean pot without scraping the bottom.
WhyFillets instead of steaks, stirring after the fish went in, or a rolling boil.
FixUse bone-in steaks, salt them for 10 minutes before cooking, add them late, and swirl the pot instead of stirring. Keep it at a gentle simmer.
WhyBanga keeps well, and many cooks say it tastes better the next day.
FixCool, cover and refrigerate within two hours; eat within 3–4 days. Freeze up to 3 months, ideally before adding the shrimp. Thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat gently on the stove, with a splash of water, until steaming hot all the way through.
Banga is eaten with a swallow or with rice. Starch & banga pairing guide →
The classic
Smooth, stretchy cassava starch, coloured golden with palm oil. This is the pairing most Itsekiri families mean when they say banga.
Starch & banga guide →Made from garri
Stir yellow or white garri into just-boiled water until firm enough to pinch. Quick, and it is what you see on the plate in the photo above.
The easy plate
Ladle banga over plain boiled long-grain rice. A practical weeknight choice in an American kitchen.
Other swallows
Both are good with banga. Instant pounded-yam flour from an African grocer makes this a 10-minute job.
Where a choice is a family custom rather than a rule, we say so.
Banga in Itsekiri life
For many Itsekiri families, starch and banga is the plate we mean when we talk about food from home. It is cooked for Sunday lunch and for visitors, and it is part of the food at gatherings large and small, from weddings and naming ceremonies to burials and homecomings.
Our homeland around Warri and the creeks of the western Niger Delta is a place of rivers, and the Itsekiri pot is built around fish: fresh fish, smoked fish and seafood. How thick it should be, which spices go in, and whether meat ever belongs in it are questions each family answers its own way. Those are family variations, not rules.
Our neighbours’ banga
Banga is not ours alone. Our Urhobo and Isoko neighbours in Delta State have their own banga traditions, as do other peoples of the Niger Delta. The spices, the fish, the thickness and what it is eaten with change from town to town and from kitchen to kitchen.
We do not rank them. If you grew up on another family’s banga, yours is not wrong, and we would like to hear about it.
Palm nut soups elsewhere
Cooks across West and Central Africa make soup from palm fruit. Igbo cooks make ofe akwu, often eaten with rice. In Ghana, abenkwan is often eaten with fufu. Efik and Ibibio cooks make abak atama, and in Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon the soup is known as sauce graine.
They share a base, not a recipe. Each has its own leaves, its own spices and its own way to the table, and each deserves to be called by its own name.
Rich and fruity from the palm fruit cream, savory from the fish and crayfish, with a leafy, warm aroma from the banga spices. It is not as fiery as pepper soup unless you make it so. Every family's pot tastes a little different.
Both start with cream pressed from boiled palm fruit, but they are different soups from different peoples. Banga, as cooked in Itsekiri, Urhobo and Isoko homes, takes its character from banga spices such as beletete and oburunbebe and is usually eaten with starch or eba. Ofe akwu is an Igbo palm nut soup with its own leaves and seasoning, and is often eaten with rice. Neither is a version of the other.
You can make a good palm nut soup without them, but most cooks from the Delta would not call it banga. If you cannot find the separate spices, a dried banga spice mix from an African grocer or an online Nigerian grocer is the practical answer. Scent leaf or basil adds freshness but does not replace them.
Starch is the classic partner. Eba (made from garri), pounded yam, fufu and plain white rice are all common, especially in American kitchens. Our starch and banga guide covers the pairing in detail.
Yes, and many diaspora cooks do. Buy plain palm nut cream, sometimes labelled palm soup base or sauce graine, loosen it with hot water until it pours like single cream, and cook it down for 15 to 20 minutes before adding the spices. You lose some of the fresh fruit's aroma; good fish and well-cooked spices make up most of the difference.
It is a rich, hearty dish. Palm fruit cream is high in fat, much of it saturated, and in calories; it also carries the carotenoids that give the soup its colour. The fish and seafood add protein. Enjoy it as a full meal with sensible portions, and follow your doctor's advice if you have been told to limit saturated fat or salt.
Refrigerate it within two hours of cooking and eat it within 3 to 4 days. It freezes well for up to 3 months, best before the shrimp go in. Thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat gently on the stove until steaming hot all the way through.
§ 07 · Cook it with us
This recipe is a starting point, not the last word. If your mother cooked it thicker, your grandmother added something we left out, or your town calls a spice by another name, send us your family’s version.
