Nigerian Meat Pie as a Dessert

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This came about as a result of an experiment in my kitchen. I wanted to jazz up my Nigerian Meat Pie because everyone in my home was getting bored with the conventional meat pie with its half moon shape.

This one tastes so good and believe me, the first time I made it, a whole pan was consumed in no time! I only made a few changes to the original Nigerian Meat Pie to get this. I replaced the Irish potatoes with sweet potatoes and added sweet apple. These two add a kind of subtle sweetness to the meat pie. Then I used a flat baking pan to make it look like the western pies.

Ingredients

I used a baking pan that is 9 inches (23cm) in diameter and 1.5 inches (4 cm) deep.

For the dough

• 300g plain flour (All Purpose Flour)
• 150g margarine
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 pinches salt
• ¼ cup cold water

For the filling

• ½ of a medium SWEET potato (150g)
• 1 small carrot (130g)
• 1 sweet apple
• 250g minced beef
• 1 small onion
• 1 big stock cube
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• Salt to taste
• Water

Thickener for the filling

A mixture of:

• 1 tablespoon plain flour
• ¼ cup cold water

Ornamental Ingredient

• 1 egg

Tools you will need to make a meat pie

• Oven: This will be used for baking the meat pie. Buy it 
• Dough Roller or good old wine bottle. Buy dough roller 
• Kitchen scale: Buy it 
• A table: You will need a flat surface to roll out and cut the dough for the meat pie.
• Small baking pan
• Table fork: This will be used to press the edges of the meat pie after the filling has been added.

Directions

The Meat Pie Filling

1. Wash, peel and dice all the vegetables. Do the same for the apple.
2. Follow the direction for making Nigerian Meat Pie filling.
3. After step 4 from over there, add the diced apple, add the thickener, stir and leave to simmer for about 3 minutes.
4. Set aside to cool down.

The dough

The dough for this pie is mixed exactly the same way as the dough for the classic Nigerian Meat Pie. Follow the directions over there to mix the dough.

Roll, Fill and Close

1. Set your oven to 170°C (335°F) to preheat.
2. Rub margarine on the insides of the baking pan. Break the egg, beat it and set aside.
3. Knead the rested dough for a bit and divide it into 2 parts. One part should be slightly bigger than the other.
4. Roll out the bigger dough to a 5mm thickness making sure that the diameter of the rolled out dough equals the diameter of your baking pan plus two times the depth of the pan and then some excess to allow for sealing the meat pie.
5. Once happy, drape the flat dough on the pan and make it snug the inside corners of the pan.
6. Fill the dough-lined baking pan with the filling.
7. Brush some egg on the dough covering the edge of the pan.
8. Roll out the remaining dough to 5mm thickness and a diameter that is a bit wider than that of the baking pan.
9. Cover the pan with the rolled out dough and use a fork to seal the edges. Feel free to close the edges any how you like.
10. Rub the egg on the dough. This gives the pie a golden brown look when done.
11. Set the pan on a rack in the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes or till the top covering is golden brown. Place the pan closer to the bottom heating so that the dough at the bottom of the pan will be well done by the time the top dough is done.

Try this and you'll love it!

Fruit Lollipops

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Want a healthy treat for kids during summer? Then make fruit lollies for them instead of buying the sugar lollies from the shops. Feel free to use any fruits that your kids, friends, nieces and nephews love. And these lollies are not just for kids, I love them too ;-)
They can be made with virtually any fruit. You just need to make sure that the fruit is very ripe. The following are the fruits I used for the fruit lolly in the video below.

Fruits used

• 1 Mango
• 2 Kiwis
• 1 Peach
• 1 Pear (English pear)

Add these fruits for colour

• Water melon
• Strawberry

Tool you will need to make Ice Lollipops

• Ice Lolly Maker or Popsicle Mold. Buy it 

Before you prepare Fruit Lollies

1. Wash and peel all the fruits.
2. Cut them into small pieces.
3. Extract the juice from the pear.

Directions

1. Blend the mango pieces using the juice from the pear.
2. Using a hand blender, crush the kiwi and the peach.
3. Scoop the mango puree and the kiwi/peach puree into the ice lolly maker or popsicle maker. It is better to scoop these in layers to create an exciting design for the kids.
   
4. Cover the ice lolly maker and place in the freezer for the minimum amount of time specified by the manufacturer.
5. When done, remove the lollies following the instructions for your ice lolly maker.

That's it! Some ice lolly makers have a receptacle that collects the drips from the fruit lollies as the kids enjoy them thereby making a minimal mess. Now go make as many lollies and make some kids happy!

How to Make Tomato Omelette

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Tomato Omelette is one of those recipes that I overlooked thinking that it is so easy to make that everybody will be able to make some. How wrong I was because this is one of the most requested recipes by the visitors to this website.
I have seen that I can no longer put it off so whether you call it Tomatoish Fried Egg, Reddish Fried Egg or Fried Egg with a red something, here it comes! ;-)
On this page and in the video below, I'll try as much as possible to answer these questions/requests that I often get about Tomato Omellete:

1. Flo, please show us how you make your Tomato Omelette?
2. Flo pls can you show us how you flip your Tomato Omelette so that it does not scatter?
3. Flo please can you make a video of that reddish fried egg?
4. Flo please can you show how to make that tomatoish fried egg? lol
5. Flo please can you show a video on how to make that fried egg where tomatoes are integrated into the egg? I call this one scientific omelette. :)

Ingredients you will need to make Tomato Omelette

I usually go with the ratio of 1 egg to 1 plum tomato but you can use 2 eggs to 1 tomato if you want. If you decide to go with the latter please note that you may not be able to fry it in one go as I did in the video below.

• 1 egg
• 1 medium plum tomato (Tomato Jos)
• 1 small onion
• A small cut of butter (for frying)
• Salt (to taste)
• Dry Pepper (optional)

Notes and tips about the ingredients

1. You can also use vegetable oil instead of butter when frying the tomato omelette.
2. A bit of ground pepper helps curb nausea that some people get when eating fried egg.

Tool you will need to make Tomato Omelette

• Non-stick frying pan: Buy it in USA | in UK

Before you make the Tomato Omelette

1. Cut the tomato into small pieces. I prefer to remove the seeds.
2. Cut the onion into small pieces. The onions should be the same quantity as the tomato (after cutting them).
3. Beat the egg, add a pinch of salt and the ground dry pepper if you are using this, stir well and set aside.

Preparation

1. Set your frying pan to heat up.
2. Melt half of the piece of butter and add the onions. Fry for a few seconds and add the tomato.
3. Fry till they are well heated up, this should take a maximum of 5 minutes on medium heat.
4. Pour this into the egg. Mix well and add more salt if necessary.
5. Set the frying pan back on the stove and melt the other half of the butter.
6. Once the butter melts, slowly pour the egg and tomato mix making sure that it is evenly distributed in the frying pan.
7. Turn the heat down to low. On a scale of 1 to 10, the heat should be at 4.
8. Then wait.
9. Wait till you see the tomato omelette caking. Once the heat is low, it will not burn so you need not worry. Also, using a non-stick frying pan helps ensure that your tomato omelette will not burn.
10. Once it has caked considerably, shake the frying pan and the omelette moves on its own. If it doesn't then it is either the heat is too much or the inside of your frying pan is too rough or both.
11. Gently transfer the omelette to a very flat wide plate. This step is best shown than described so watch the video below to see how I did that.
12. Cover the omelette in the plate with the frying pan and flip is such that the top side is now at the bottom of the frying pan. Again, see the video for how I did that.
13. Set the frying pan back on the stove and fry till the bottom side is well fried.
14. Once it cakes, it's ready!

Serve with slices of bread or any of the following:

1. Nigerian Fried Plantain
2. Nigerian Fried Yam
3. Boiled Yam

Akara Nigerian Breakfast Recipe

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Akara, also known as Bean Cakes, Bean Balls, Bean Fritas or Acarajé in Portuguese is a Nigerian breakfast recipe made with beans.

To make Akara, you need to first of all remove the beans coat. You should remove the coat from the beans just before you make the Akara. This means that you can't use coatless beans that has been stored in the fridge or freezer to make Akara. I tried that and the Akara just spattered everywhere in the vegetable oil.

Ingredients you need for Akara

You only need 5 ingredients to make Akara:

• 1 cup of Beans (black-eyed or brown beans)
• 2 habanero chilli peppers
• 1 medium Onion
• Salt to taste
• Vegetable Oil for frying

Tools you will need:

• Blender
• Mortar and Pestle

Before you fry Akara

1. Remove the beans coat. Read how to remove beans coat for help on how to do that. It is important that you do not let salt come in contact with the beans you will use in making Akara till you are ready to fry it. Salt is believed to destroy the leavening property of beans. This is what prevents spattering of the beans batter during frying.
2. Then soak the beans in water for 2 hours to make it soft enough for your blender. If you will grind it using the heavy duty grinders in Nigerian markets, it will not be necessary to soak the beans for extended periods of time.
3. Cut the pepper and onions into desirable sizes.

Making Akara

1. Grind the beans with your blender making sure you add as little water as possible. The water should be just enough to move the blades of your blender.
   
   The operators of the heavy duty grinders in Nigerian markets don't even add water when grinding beans for Akara. The less water you add at the grinding stage, the more the beans batter will stay together during frying thereby reducing spatter. Also, do not add any other ingredient when grinding the beans for Akara. It is believed that other ingredients, if added too early, reduce the ability of the ground beans particles to stick together.
2. Set some vegetable oil on the cooker to heat up. The oil should be at least 3 inches deep.
3. Put some of the ground beans into a mortar. This should be the quantity you can fry in one go.
4. Stir the beans puree with the pestle in a continuous circular motion. You need to apply some pressure so that you can energize the particles of the beans puree.
   
   This stirring technique releases the gas that will act like a leavening agent to the beans particles, making them rise and somehow stick together. This will be like the yeast making the dough rise in Puff Puff or what folding does to cake batter.
5. Keep stirring till the ground beans appears whiter and you can perceive its peculiar aroma.
6. Add some water till you get the consistency shown in the video below.
7. Check to make sure the oil is hot. The oil should be hot enough to sizzle but not too hot. If too hot, the Akara will spatter as soon as the beans batter hits the oil.
8. Once the oil is hot, add the onions and pepper to the beans puree in the mortar. Stir well.
9. Add salt to your taste and stir again. Salt should always be added just before scooping the beans mixture into the oil. If salt stays in the mixture for extended periods of time, it will destroy the leavening property of the beans. This property is what makes the Akara float in the oil and prevent spatter during frying.
10. To fry the Akara, scoop the mixture with a table spoon and slowly pour this into the oil. Dipping the spoon a little bit into the oil helps reduce spatter.
11. Fry the underside till brown and flip to fry the top side too.
12. When the Akara balls are brown all over, remove and place in a sieve lined with paper towels.
13. Serve Akara with Custard/Ogi/Akamu, Agidi or Bread. The best bread to eat Akara with is oven-fresh, hot and stretchy bread like Agege Bread . lol!
14. Making Akara may seem like rocket science but with practice, you will perfect this recipe. If you do not get it right the first time, try again. Everybody has the same first time experience with making Akara.

Important points to note when making Akara

Follow these and your Akara will turn out great.

1. Use freshly skinned beans.
2. Use a very small quantity of water when grinding.
3. Smoothen the mix with mortar and pestle before frying.
4. Add salt just before frying.

Vegetable Sauce Recipe

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This tasty recipe, made from chopped salad vegetables is a colourful way to enjoy a wide range of staple foods with vegetables. Some people even call it Salad Stew. Eat it with white rice, boiled yam, fried plantain or even mashed potatoes.

It is very rich in vitamins and nutrients. So there is no reason why you should not be cooking this recipe as soon as possible.
I promise you'll not want to eat the Nigerian Red Stew ever again after eating this vegetable sauce.

Ingredients

• Whole Chicken
• Vegetable Oil (2 cooking spoons)
• 5 Spring Onions
• 8 Fresh Plum Tomatoes (Jos Tomatoes)
• 8 medium Carrots
• Cabbage (1 small bulb)
• Potatoes (3 medium sized)
• 1 Red Bell Pepper (optional)
• 1 Green Bell Pepper
• Salt - to taste
• Seasoning – 3 big stock cubes, thyme

Before you cook the Vegetable Sauce

1. Wash and cut the vegetables: plum tomatoes (remember to remove the seeds), carrots, cabbage and bell pepper as shown. Remember to scrape the carrots before cutting. Set these aside.
   
2. Peel the Irish potatoes, wash and cut into small pieces. Blend into a thick paste and set aside. This will be used as thickener for the Vegetable Sauce.
   

Cooking Directions

1. Wash and cut the whole chicken into pieces. Place in a pot, add chopped spring onions, stock cubes and thyme. Add water to cover the contents of the pot and start cooking.
2. When done, add salt to taste and top up the water to the same level as the contents if necessary.
3. Once it boils, add the chopped tomatoes and the vegetable oil. Cover and cook for 15 minutes.
4. Add the carrots and cook for 5 minutes.
5. Now, add the potato puree, chopped bell peppers and cabbage. Stir, cover and allow to cook for 5 minutes on high heat. Add salt to taste and the sauce is ready to be served.
   

   Note: Feel free to experiment by varying the thickness of the vegetable sauce. This you can achieve by increasing or decreasing the amount of potato puree added till you get a consistency that appeals to you.
   Tip: The smoothest puree usually settles at the bottom so you may want to use only that (if it is sufficient) and discard the frothy part at the top.
   

Serve with white rice, boiled yam, fried plantain or mashed potatoes.

How to cook Banga Soup (Ofe Akwu)

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The Nigerian Banga Soup or Ofe Akwu is native to the Niger Delta and the South Eastern parts of Nigeria. In the Niger Delta areas, Banga soup is commonly eaten with various fufu recipes: Starch, Pounded Yam, Semolina, Garri and Cassava Fufu. In the South Eastern parts of Nigeria, Banga Soup is referred to as Ofe Akwu where Ofe means Soup / Stew and Akwu means palm fruit and is used mainly as stew for the White Rice recipe.
How to Cook Banga Soup/Stew [Video]
The palm fruit oil extract used in cooking Banga Soup / Stew is quite different from the Palm Oil used in cooking Nigerian food recipes. Palm Oil is pure oil extracted from the palm fruit pulp at high temperatures while the palm fruit oil extract used for the Banga Soup is extracted at a very low temperature and is a mixture of oil and water. Palm fruit oil extracted for Banga Soup contains less saturated fat than palm oils.

Ingredients for Banga Soup

• 1 kg Palm Fruits or 800g tinned Palm Fruit Concentrate
• Beef
• Dry Fish
• Vegetable: Scent Leaves for Ofe Akwu or dried and crushed bitterleaves for Banga Soup
• 2 medium onions
• A handful crayfish or 2 tablespoons of ground Crayfish
• Salt and Chilli Pepper (to taste)
• Ogiri Okpei (Iru)
• 1-2 big stock cubes

Before you cook the Nigerian Banga Soup

1. Extract the palm fruit concentrate from the palm fruits. If using the tinned palm fruit concentrate, open the tin and set aside.
2. Cook the beef and the dry fish with 1 bulb of diced onion and the stock cubes till done.
3. Wash and cut the scent leaves into tiny pieces. The scent leaves give the Banga Stew (Ofe Akwu) its unique aroma and taste. If you are outside Nigeria, this may be hard to find, so you can use pumpkin leaves or any other vegetable in place of scent leaves. If cooking Banga Soup for starch, you should either cook this soup without vegetables or use dried and crushed bitter leaves.
4. Cut the remaining bulb of onion. Pound the crayfish, ogiri okpei and pepper in a mortar and set aside. You can also grind them with a dry mill.

Cooking Directions

1. Set the pot of palm fruit extract on the stove and start cooking at high heat. Leave to boil till you notice come red oil at the surface of the Banga Stew. If you think that the Banga Soup is watery, cook till the soup has thickened to the consistency you like for your stews.
2. Now, add the beef, dry fish and stock, the onions, crayfish and pepper and leave to boil very well.
3. Add the scent leaves or other vegetable and salt to taste. Leave to simmer for about 2 mins. The Banga Soup is done. Serve with White Rice or use the Banga Soup to eat Starch, Garri, Semolina, Amala or Pounded Yam.

Cooking Directions for those using tinned palm fruit concentrate

1. When the beef and fish are well done, add the palm fruit concentrate and add water to get the consistency you like for your stews. Leave to boil very well.
2. Add the onions, crayfish, pepper and ogiri blend and let it boil very well.
3. Add the scent leaves or other vegetable and salt to taste. Leave to simmer for about 2 mins. The Banga Soup is done.

Efo Riro: A Yoruba Delicacy

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Efo Riro is a rich vegetable soup that is native to the Yorubas of Western Nigeria. The vegetables that can be used to cook this soup are water leaves and pumpkin leaves. If these are not readily available where you live, frozen spinach is a very good substitute.
Nigerian Efo Riro Recipe [Video]
If you cannot find the ingredients to cook Edikang Ikong soup where you live, Efo Riro is a very good substitute.
If you want the authentic Efo Riro, you should add tomatoes to yours but I don't like tomatoes in any soup that I'll use to eat eba, semolina, pounded yam and other fufu recipes. Just add enough tomatoes to make the soup deep red.

Ingredients for Efo Riro

• Assorted meat and fish. For my Efo Riro, I used:
  • Beef
  • Shaki (cow tripe)
  • Smoked fish
  • Dry fish
  • Stock fish
• Palm Oil: 20 cl
• Frozen Spinach: 1 kg
• Crayfish: a handful
• Onions: 1 medium bulb
• 3 big stock cubes (spinach needs more seasoning)
• Salt & Habanero / Scotch Bonnet peppers: to taste

Other meats you can add to Efo Riro:
The more the variety of meats and fish you can add to Efo Riro, the better so feel free to add: snails and other offals, kanda etc.

Before you cook Efo Riro

1. Soak the stockfish and dry fish for a few hours. The length of time depends on how hard the stock fish is. Mine soaks in under 1 hour. When soft, clean the fish, remove the bones and separate them into small pieces.
2. Cut the frozen spinach and wring out the excess water when fully defrosted.
3. Prepare other ingredients: pound/blitz the pepper, cut the onions and grind the crayfish.

Cooking Directions

1. Start cooking the shaki first with as little water as possible (see video below) as it is the toughest meat in the bunch. This soup should have as little water as possible so add small amounts of water at a time and top it up as you cook.
2. When the shaki starts to curl, add the dry fish and stockfish.
3. When the shaki is almost done, add beef, stock cubes and onions and cook till all the meat and fish are well done.
4. Top up the water to about half the contents of the pot. Add the crayfish, smoked fish, pepper and palm oil.
5. Cover the pot and cook at high heat till the oil has changed from red to yellow.
6. Add the spinach or any other soft vegetable: pumpkin, water leaves etc.
7. Cover and cook still it gets a good boil, taking care not to overcook the vegetables. Add salt to taste and leave to simmer for 2 more minutes.

Serve Efo Riro with Semolina, Amala, Pounded Yam, Eba or any other fufu meal.

Ogbono Soup (Draw Soup)

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Ogbono Soup also known as Draw Soup makes eating Fufu Recipes so easy because of its slimy nature which helps the lumps of fufu slide down. If your kids do not like Okra Soup because of the chunks of Okra, then try Ogbono Soup, they will surely love it.
Some people like their Ogbono soup plain, with no added vegetables, others would not touch it unless there is some kind of vegetable in it. A third group love their Ogbono Soup with Okra. Some people even go fancy and add Egusi to it.
Be sure to check out the following link where you'll find more tips for preparing Ogbono Soup.

Ingredients for Ogbono Soup

• Assorted Meat and Fish: Beef, Shaki, DryFish, Stock Fish
• Ogbono Seeds: 2 handfuls
• Palm Oil: 3 Cooking spoons
• Vegetable: Frozen Spinach (you can also use Pumpkin leaves or even Bitterleaf)
• Crayfish: 1 handful
• Pepper and Salt - To taste
• 1 medium size Onion
• 2 Stock cubes (Maggi/Knorr)

Before you cook Ogbono Soup

1. Grind the Ogbono with a dry mill.
2. Cut the frozen spinach when it is not completely defrosted. It is easier that way. Then when completely defrosted, squeeze out the excess water.
3. Cook the assorted meat with the stock cubes and onion. If you will use Shaki, remember to start cooking that first, then add beef when almost done.
4. Grind crayfish and pepper.
5. Boil some water and set aside.

Cooking Directions for Ogbono Soup

1. Pour the palm oil into a clean dry stainless steel or aluminium pot. Set on the stove and melt the oil at low heat. Remember, only melt the oil, do not allow it to heat up.
2. Once melted, turn off the heat and add the ground Ogbono.
3. Use your cooking spoon to dissolve the Ogbono in the oil.
4. When all the Ogbono powder has completely mixed with the oil, add the meat/fish stock (water from cooking the assorted meat and fish). Set the heat of your cooker to low and start stirring. You will notice the Ogbono start to thicken and draw.
5. Keep stirring till the Ogbono has completely absorbed the meat stock.
6. Add a small quantity of the hot water and stir till the Ogbono has absorbed all the water. Repeat this process till you get a consistency that is shown in the video below.
7. Making sure that your heat is set to low, cover the pot and start cooking. Once it starts to simmer, stir every 2-3 minutes for 20 minutes.
   So what you'll do is: every 3 minutes or so, open the pot, stir every well, scraping the Ogbono that sticks to the base of the pot, cover the pot and cook for another 3 minutes.
8. After 20 minutes, the Ogbono should be well cooked and you will begin to perceive its nice flavour and aroma.
9. Add the assorted meat and fish, ground crayfish, salt and pepper to taste. The Ogbono may have become thicker from the cooking. If so, add a little bit more water and stir very well. Cover and cook till the contents of the pot is well heated up.
10. If you prefer your Ogbono Soup without vegetables, turn off the heat and serve but if you like to add a vegetable then keep reading :)
11. When the contents of the pot have heated up, add the vegetable (frozen Spinach used in the video). Stir very well, cover the pot and turn off the heat. Leave to stand for about 5 minutes and serve with any Fufu recipe.

Frequently Asked Questions about Ogbono Soup

My Ogbono Soup does not draw. Why?

There are 3 main reasons why your Ogbono Soup does not draw.

1. You bought the wrong seeds. There is another seed that looks so much like Ogbono and is sold as Ogbono seeds in Nigerian markets. First sign that you are buying the wrong seeds is if they are too cheap to be true. To confirm that the seeds are really Ogbono seeds: break the seed and rub the broken sides together, if they make a sap that draws, then you've got the real Ogbono seeds. In Nigeria, every open market seller should let you do this "drawing test", if not, please leave their shop and go somewhere else.
   
   For those living outside Nigeria, I guess you just have to pray that the Ogbono seeds in the pack you buy are the real thing :)
2. Another reason why your Ogbono Soup does not draw may be because you used packaged ground Ogbono, ground being the keyword here. This is especially the case for those who live outside Nigeria who do not have any choice than to buy the ground packaged Ogbono sold in African shops.
   
   Once you grind Ogbono, it starts losing its potency to draw and with time, it won't draw anymore. The exact time at which it completely loses its potency to draw will depend on: how dry the Ogbono was before the grinding took place and how well it is packaged amongst other things.
3. The third reason why your Ogbono Soup does not draw is that you fried it before adding the meat/fish stock. The ground Ogbono should only be dissolved in the palm oil NOT fried. The more you fry it, the more it loses its drawing ability till you've got no potency left. This happens even if it is the authentic Ogbono seed.

How can I cook Ogbono Soup so that it does not burn?

First, turn down the heat. Whatever you are cooking, turn down the heat to prevent burning. This is especially the case with Ogbono Soup which is very sticky. Always cook your Ogbono Soup at very low heat. If your cooker's heating ranges from 1 to 9, set the heat to 4.
Secondly, do not add crayfish or any other ingredients when cooking the Ogbono at first. Crayfish especially speeds up the burning. When you grind your Ogbono in Nigerian markets, they will tell you to use crayfish to make sure all the Ogbono comes out of the mill. If you decide to do that, make sure that they put the crayfish and that last bit of Ogbono in a different plastic bag for you and add the crayfish bit when you add the rest of the ingredients.
Also, use stainless steel or aluminium pots in cooking your Ogbono Soup. Non-stick pots are not the best for cooking Ogbono Soup even though it says non-stick lol!

My Ogbono Soup tastes bland in spite of all the ingredients I usually add to it. Why is this?

One reason Ogbono Soup will taste bland even after adding enough ingredients is that you did not cook it long enough. I have seen a lot of people cook Ogbono for only 5 minutes. That's not enough. Ogbono, once added, should be cooked for at least 20 minutes on low heat. This is the time at which the taste begins to come out and blend with the ingredients.
Another reason is maybe because the Ogbono seeds have gone mouldy in which case, it will have a slightly bitter taste too.

NIGERIAN BEANS RECIPE

Black-Eyed or Brown beans are rich in high quality protein which provides a healthy alternative to meat and other animal protein. They are also rich in soluble fiber which helps lower blood cholesterol. This makes beans a must-have staple in Nigerian dishes. Still beans is not a very popular food item because it is associated with flatulence and indigestion. Allnigerianrecipes.com details some cooking methods that will help eliminate the discomfort associated with beans to ensure that this staple stays in your family menu.
Do you prefer videos? Then watch all the Nigerian Beans recipes videos in one place.

Peeled Beans Porridge

This beans recipe is perfect for babies and those who crave Breadfruit Porridge but can't buy breadfruit where they live.

Ewa Agoyin

Eat Ewa Agoyin with a soft, stretchy bread and you'll probably sell your cooker and buy beans with the money :)

Akara (Bean Cake/Balls)

Remove the beans coat, grind it, fry it and you have Akara! Perfect for a relaxed breakfast meal.

Beans Porridge

This recipe, rich in nutrients, should never be left out from family menus.

Moi Moi (Moin Moin)

This is a popular beans recipe even for those who do not like beans for several reasons. It is so loved that you will always see it at parties and special dinners.

Rice and Beans

A mixture of two staples that will challenge your taste buds

Cocoyam

 

 

 

 

 

Description

Cocoyam is a tropical starchy tuberous root crop. There are many varieties of cocoyam but the most common are the soft variety used mainly as soup thickeners and the yam-like variety that can be boiled in a short time and eaten with pepper sauce.

Cocoyam Recipes

The soft variety is used mainly as a thickener in some Nigerian soup recipes which include:

Bitterleaf Soup - This is a very traditional soup recipe, native to the eastern part of Nigeria.

Ora (Oha) Soup - The only difference between Ora Soup and Bitterleaf Soup is the type of vegetable used in preparing them, yet they taste so different.

Other recipes that are prepared with the cocoyam are:

Cocoyam Flakes Porridge – The cocoyam is cooked, cut into thin chips and dried in the sun. The resulting flakes are later soaked in water and cooked with vegetables.

Ekpang Nkwukwo – In this recipe, both the corms and the leaves of the cocoyam are used as ingredients.

Season

Cocoyam is planted a bit later in the rainy season, in the months of May and June. This is because it requires more moisture to germinate. Harvest for cocoyam begins in late September and ends around January, just before the dry season becomes too hot.

Storage

Cocoyam, like yam, can be stored for several months and it will still retain its taste. It is best stored in a cool, dry and well ventilated place. Most times they are stored on raised racks because the bare floor causes them to rot.

Buying Guide

Cocoyam, when in season, is readily available in the open Nigerian markets. It is harder to find them in African food stores outside Nigeria.
When buying cocoyam, carry out visual inspection of the corms. Press all parts of the corm to make sure that it is firm all over. Soft parts are the first indication that the cocoyam is going bad. Also avoid the ones with bruises or cracks as much as possible. Most bruises occur during harvest or transportation and may cause the affected parts to go bad.

Nutrition

Cocoyam corms are rich in carbohydrates while the leaves are a good source of vitamins A and C and contain more protein than the corms.