Article
Yams are widely known and
appreciated by Nigerians because of its uses to prepare a variety of delicious
quick-to-prepare meals.
Jumia Travel shares five
delicious Nigerian yam dishes that’ll leave you reeling from its sumptuous
taste.
Yam
porridge
The Western Nigeria
version of this meal is Asaro. The main difference between the normal yam
porridge and Asaro is the blended peppers, palm oil and occasional ‘Ata Dindin’
added to the Asaro. Normal yam porridge can be cooked with vegetable oil as an
alternative to palm oil and need not have as much pepper as the Asaro.
Its method of preparation
is simple with the need of only few main ingredients like seasoning, palm or
vegetable oil and smoked or dry fish (or mashed chicken depending on your
preference).
Pounded
yam
It’s a very delicious and
popular ‘swallow’ meal that’s eaten with various Nigerian soup recipes like
Egusi soup, Okro soup, Efo Riro etc. It is traditionally prepared by cooking
pieces of white yam and pounding the pieces in a mortar with a pestle, until
the yam is soft and stretchy.
Recently, a version of
pounded yam called ‘Poundo Yam’ has been introduced to relieve some of the
stress of the traditional pounded yam preparation process. The ‘poundo yam’ is
mainly prepared by stirring yam flour in hot water until it’s soft and
stretchy.
Yam
and fried eggs
Every Nigerian child has
this meal as a lunchtime companion while growing up. If your parents didn’t
pack it in your school lunchbox, it was served for lunch in the dining hall
during ‘long-break’.
It’s also a simple meal to
prepare, and it mainly consists of boiled yam and fried eggs. Onions, pepper
and seasoning are added alongside to improve the taste of the fried eggs.
Yam
balls
It’s a hand held tasty
snack that makes for a nice side dish or appetizer. It is usually served in the
‘small chops’ section of parties. The dish can be stuffed with varieties of
fillings such as minced/ground beef, mashed chicken, fresh shrimp, fish, bell
peppers, sweet corn, spring onions, sliced onions etc. White yam is usually
cooked, and blended and mixed into smooth and stretchy dough, before being
wrapped into a ball with fillings and fried in hot oil.
Ofe
nsala (white soup)
This is a tasty and
mouth-watering soup that’s popular in the eastern part of Nigeria. The soup can
be cooked with cat fish, fresh fish or assorted meat and dried fish. It
contains no palm or vegetable oil, and is characterized by its light color.
Here, the yam cubes are
peeled and pounded to smooth paste (using a mortar and pestle, or a blender).
Yam powder can also be used instead of yam cubes. Some hot water is added to
the yam flour, and stirred continuously until a smooth paste is made. The yam paste
is then added to a watery mix of pepper, crayfish (optional), chopped onions,
salt, seasoning, cooked assorted meat and dried fish (or catfish or fresh fish,
depending on your preference). The paste will completely dissolve after a
while, signaling that the delicious Ofe Nsala is ready. The soup is usually
served with pounded yam, eba, amala or fufu.
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