Top 3 Nigerian Food Recipes

Any typical Nigerian man or woman will definitely love and appreciate the number of Nigerian foods that are served in Nigeria. 

In this post, we’ll take you on a journey of the top 5 Nigerian food recipes. These foods are quite popular and I bet you’re familiar to most of them. They are also easy to prepare or replicate while others require just some bit of effort. 

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So let’s begin, shall we? 

1. Jollof Rice

Of course. The Nigerian jollof rice. One of the most popular foods that can be cooked in less than an hour. Though there are quite a number of different jollof rice recipes out there, yet they all still take the same process of preparation. 

Some minor differences could include use of chicken instead of fish, the addition of vegetables/fruits, etc.

Jollof Rice Recipe:

Ingredients for Jollof Rice

4 cups of rice

1kg meat

1000ml of Ground Fresh tomatoes.

50ml Ground Fresh peppers

1 Teaspoon Curry powder

1 teaspoon Thyme

1 teaspoon Nutmeg powder

3 seasoning cubes

2 cups of sliced onions

300ml vegetable or groundnut oil

salt to taste.

2 cloves of garlic

2 fingers of ginger

Step by Step Preparation

Step 1

Parboil the meat with the spices listed above. Use lots of them so as to end up with very tasty beef.  Keep the meat stock (meat water).

Step 2

Add water so that more than half of the entire meat is covered. Add 2 seasoning cubes, a teaspoon of beef seasoning spice, 1 cup of sliced onions, one teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon each of curry/thyme.

Step 3

Parboil rice with about 7 cups of water in a pot, add the four cups of rice and allow to boil for 3 minutes. Then pour out and wash thoroughly with clean water then set aside in a plastic sieve or bowl. 

Step 4

Pick out the parboiled tasty beef and fry well. 

Reduce the oil to 250ml (1 cup) just add the remaining one cup of sliced onions, stir for 1-2 minutes and add the ground tomatoes.

Step 5

Fry the tomatoes for 20 minutes. You will notice the tomatoes turning dark.

Step 6

Once the tomato is well fried, remove half and set aside. add the meat water to the remaining fried tomato in the pot, the ground ginger/garlic, a teaspoon each of curry and thyme, two teaspoons of salt then add 3 cups of water.

Stir and taste

Step 7

Then add the rice and cover to cook.

Add the fried tomatoes you initially removed so that your rice doesn’t start burning before it is properly cooked.

Allow to cook till the rice is soft for consumption, Remember that you can add water occasionally.

2. White Rice and tomato stew.

White rice and tomato stew is like a sister to jollof rice. 

Preparing white rice is quite simple. Just get the quantity of rice you want and boil it the usual way with cold water.  

For Tomato, it is one of the popular stew recipes enjoyed by Nigerians. 

Complete Ingredients For Tomato Stew

2 KG Goat meat.

1500 ml Ground tomatoes.

Ground Fresh Red Pepper.

1 cup of sliced onions.

A teaspoon of ground nutmeg.

teaspoon each of curry and thyme.

Half teaspoon ground ginger

Half teaspoon ground garlic

Vegetable (optional)(curry leaves, pumpkin leaves etc)

400 ml of Vegetable oil.

3 Stock cubes.

2 tbsp Crayfish.

Salt to taste.

1 tsp beef seasoning spice

You can double or reduce the ingredients depending on the number of people who will be eating the food. 

Preparation

Wash the tomatoes and blend alongside the fresh pepper, also blend the crayfish alongside the nutmeg seed (1).

Slice the onion. 

Wash the meat and parboil with three stock cubes, a teaspoon of salt, teaspoon each of curry and thyme and a half cup of sliced onions.

Also, sprinkle a teaspoon of your favourite beef spice.

If you want, you can use the meat stock [water from the meat] for the main cooking.

Cook until the meat is soft enough for consumption

STEP 1

Set your frying pan on heat.

Add 400 ml of vegetable oil. Add the sliced onions and fry for about 2 minutes to release the scent into the oil.

STEP 2

Then pour in the ground tomatoes/pepper and fry. 

stirring occasionally to avoid burning. 

 Fry with lots of oil (which could be reduced after frying) so as to reduce the possibility of the tomato having a sour taste. 

STEP 3

You have to keep stirring for the next 20-30 minute so as not to end up with burned tomato stew.

Fry till the tomatoes boil in oil alone. Then you can transfer the pre-cooked meat… plus the stock.

A teaspoon each of these ground spices (ginger and garlic)

Stir.

STEP 4

Add extra stock cube (optional), add the ground crayfish/nutmeg and allow to cook for ten minutes.

Taste for salt

3. Egusi Soup and Eba

Now let’s come to the soup part. 

The Equisi soup and Eba or garri or semo is third on our list and is undoubtedly the most popular and tasty soup.   

Equisi soup recipe

1KG Assorted meat

2 cups of egusi (melon)

Roasted fish (about two medium sizes)

1 cup of ground crayfish

1 cups of washed bitter leaves

2 seasoning cubes

100 ml of palm oil

About 1 litre of water

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste (scotch bonnet).

One medium-sized Stock fish head (okporoko)

Preparation

Grind the four cups of egusi with a dry blender or hand grinding machine and set aside in a bowl. 

Add about a cup of water to it and stir to make a very thick paste as you can see below.

mixing

Wash the bitter leaves (onugbu) to remove over 95% of the bitter taste. 

Parboil the meat with all the necessary ingredients, it is advisable to parboil meat with some ingredient before adding to the main food, this improves the taste of the meat.

Parboil for about ten minutes, add water and cook till the meat is tender and the stock (water) is about to dry. Put in two seasoning cubes, a teaspoon of salt and a half cup of sliced onions.

Pour hot water over the stockfish in a bowl and wash thoroughly remove sand and then remove the centre bone, then set aside.

Set your cooking pot on the fire and add 300ml of palm oil (red oil), allow to heat for a minute. Add the egusi paste and keep stirring for the next eight to ten minutes to form seed-like crumbs. 

Then transfer the already cooked meat into the pot, stir.

Add the washed dry fish, stockfish, ground crayfish, a seasoning cube, ground scotch bonnet pepper and 6 cups of water. cover and allow to boil for the next ten minutes.

Stir occasionally to avoid burning.

Add the already washed bitter leaves,  taste for salt and pepper.

Allow to boils for ten minutes and stir every 3 minutes. 

That’s it. 

This is how to make the kind of equisi you only find in posh restaurants and eateries. 😀