Around the world, there are common food ingredients we are all used to having in the kitchen. As many similarities range through countries and continents, there are also different varieties specific to different cultures.
So here is a list of the essential ingredients for Nigerian food recipes.
You can buy all these ingredients in Nigerian food markets and African food shops in all major cities of the world.
1. Stock Cubes
In Nigeria, we use stock cubes to cook virtually every recipe: Soups recipes, Rice recipes, Beans recipes or Plantain. Once you will add ingredients to the Nigerian meal you are cooking, then you should add stock cubes to it unless you do not eat them at all.
The most popular stock cubes used in Nigerian food recipes are Knorr, Maggi and Royco. If you are allergic to MSG or you do not want to eat it, read the labels of these seasoning cubes to make sure the one you are using does not contain MSG.
2. Salt
Salt is added to almost every Nigerian food recipe. The exception to this being Custard/Akamu/Ogi and the fufu meals. For the fufu meals, they get their taste from the soup that goes with the meal.
If you are advised by a doctor to stay off salt, then by all means leave it out when preparing your Nigerian meals.
3. Onions (Red or White)
Onions should be used when cooking beef or chicken that you will use to prepare the Nigerian Stew Recipes and the Nigerian Rice Recipes. It can also be used for some Nigerian Soup Recipes examples: Okra Soup, Pepper Soup, Banga Soup and Edikang Ikong Soup. It is not advisable to use onions for Egusi Soup but it’s not too bad if you use it.
But NEVER add onions to Bitterleaf Soup and Ora (Oha) Soup. It will take away the traditional/classic taste of these soups.
4. Palm Oil
Palm oil is the preferred cooking oil when you want to prepare Nigerian Soup recipes. The best palm oils are the ones that are pure red and free flowing.
If the palm oil is orange or even yellow in colour, it means it was not well processed and contains a lot of water. This may cause it to be smelly and this will adversely affect the taste of your Nigerian soup dishes.
Congealed palm oil is not necessarily bad. Most palm oil sold in western countries may be congealed due to the cold weather.
5. Vegetable Oil
Pure vegetable oil is used to cook all Nigerian Rice Recipes and Nigerian tomato stew. It is also used for any recipe that requires frying, examples: Fried Plantain, Fried Yam and all the fried Snacks recipes.
Groundnut Oil is used as an alternative to pure vegetable oil but due to its strong taste, it is not so popular.
If you are outside Nigeria, Sunflower Oil is a very good alternative to pure vegetable oil. Whatever you do, NEVER use Olive Oil to cook Nigerian recipes. The taste is so strong that the food will not taste Nigerian.
6. Peppers
These include all hot peppers: fresh, dry, chilli, habanero or scotch bonnet peppers.With the exception of Nigerian Snacks and Nigerian Fried Rice, hot chilli pepper is present in all Nigerian foods. Even if you don’t like pepper, it is always good to add a tiny quantity because this will bring out the taste of your Nigerian meals. If pepper is absent, the food will taste bland to any Nigerian person.
7. Garri
Garri is a type of cassava flour a.k.a milled cassava. Cassava is grounded, fermented, drained of excess starch then toasted. Garri can either be yellow or white. for the yellow Garri, the fermented and drained cassava is mixed with a little palm oil before toasting.
8. Rice
Rice is common to most people, but beyond that, to Nigerians, it is a necessity. That’s just a little bit of humour, but in all honestly, Nigerians eat rice almost like we drink water. Well somewhat close. This is evident in the various rice dishes we have, the most popular one being Jollof rice. Various types of rice are farmed and produced in Nigeria, especially long-grain rice. However, the showstopper rice of Nigeria is what is known as Ofada rice. Ofada is ‘The Nigerian Rice’.
9. Spice mix
Spice mixes are popular amongst Africans and the black community at large. A combination of different spices, herbs and seasonings always takes a meal to a tastier level.
10. Smoked Crayfish
Similar to stockfish, crayfish is a unique delicious additive to Nigerian cooking. It comes in handy for soups, stews, rice dishes, potages and more. It adds a great flavour in its whole form but is also great as powdered seasoning.
