Quality evaluation of ‘Ewedu’ (Corchorus olitorus) as affected by cooking methods

The quality of "ewedu" soups produced using chemical additives and milling before cooking was investigated. Four samples were produced as follows: “Ewedu” leaves + 1g Baking Soda using “Ijabe” (ELwBSuI); “Ewedu” leaves + 1g Potash using “Ijabe” (ELwPuI) and “Ewedu” leaves using blender (ELuB while “Ewedu” leaves using “Ijabe” (ELCuI) serves as the control. Proximate, mineral and Vitamin C compositions of the samples were evaluated using Standard methods. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the moisture, fibre and ash contents of the samples. A high moisture content range (82.56 - 82.65%) was recorded and this might be responsible for the low values of other proximate components of the samples. Potassium was the most abundant in all the mineral elements assessed (218.05 - 234.98mg (100g) and closely followed by calcium, sodium and magnesium in that order. ELwBSuI and ELwPuI showed a significantly higher sodium contents (13.47 and 12.08mg/100g) than ELCuI (10.37 mg /100g) and ELuB (10.30mg/100g). There was no significant difference in the Vitamin C contents of the groups and the values ranged from 63.07 - 63.73mg/100g. This study shows that milling before cooking can be adopted as a means of cooking ewedu soups as against the use of “ijabe”baking soda and potash.