Question
What can I prepare for dinner in Nigeria? I am running short of ideas, I could fix anything for morning and afternoon but I am always wondering about what I can prepare for dinner for my young Nigerian family.
Answers
There are lots of different foods that come to mind when you talk about dinner in my home we try virtually everything from swallows to rice, beans, moi moi etc. Of course, moi moi goes with pap. lol
If you are wondering what to prepare for dinner, try some of the foods below.
Swallow and Soups For Dinner
There are quite a number of variation for the image above, there are different Types of Soups in Nigeria and of course, there are different types of swallows. We have eba, fufu, pounded yam, semo, wheat, tuwo shinkafa, etc. For you, it could be a combination of egusi soup and eba or ogbono soup and fufu. You can even try this Nigerian native soup and serve with semo, the choice is yours. Swallow and soup serve as a perfect dinner combination in Nigeria. The image above is that of Okro soup and wheat.
Rice and Stew for Dinner
The image above is actually that of rice and vegetable sauce, it would pass any day for a perfect dinner in Nigeria. There are other rice recipes that exist in Nigeria. We have jollof rice, rice and tomato stew, fried rice, Caribbean rice and a handful of other recipes that could be made for dinner.
Tea and Bread for Dinner
Also, some of the time we choose to go light! Dinner should really be made of light foods, lighter than what you had in the afternoon. So most time it is just tea and toasted bread. There are other versions of light foods you could prepare as dinner in Nigeria. You could try a combination of pap (akamu) and akara (beans cake), You can also
prepare porridge beans and serve with pap.
I would like to get your feedback, what do you prepare for dinner in your Nigerian home?
Use the comment box below.
Anything goes in my home. Sometimes it is just tea and bread, now, I only think of light Nigerian foods for dinner. We hardly eat heavy foods and go to bed. This evening I am making akara and pap for dinner.
I have some healthy foods that could pass for dinner in my private food menu, Usually, I think of healthy and light foods when it comes to dinner recipes. I don’t want to wake up tired and grumpy.
Different people eat different things for dinner in Nigeria, for my family, it is either eba, rice or yam. The eba can go with anyone of the many Nigerian soups.
The rice is either jollof or white. When it is white boiled rice we serve with banga soup or tomato stew, We hardly make fried rice for dinner in my home, except we are expecting an August visitor.
When it is yam, nothing else comes to mind except porridge yam or we just boil the yam and serve with egg-tomato sauce, .
When you think of what to prepare for dinner in Nigeria, so many foods come to mind but Nigerian basically eat anything as long as dinner is concerned. usually it is about what an individual or a family can afford. Most average families rotate between Rice, beans and eba. When you make more money you can even create a menu of assorted foods served every night.
For low income earners it is usually eba and soup. Since soup can be made with any amount of money and garri (eba) is easy to come by.
If you are new to Nigerian cooking I would suggest you start with Jollof rice as the author already mentioned above. Jollof rice is one of the best foods you could make for dinner in Nigeria.
We have many food for dinner in Nigeria, normally you are not suppose to eat heavy foods before going to bed but most Nigerian home prefers heavy food in the night hours.
So usually, it is a combination of eba and soup for most families in Nigeria.
These are some of the food prepared for dinner in Nigeria;
1. Swallow and soup: this is any type of swallow like EBA, wheat, fufu, semo, pounded yam etc. And any type of soup like egusi, banga, efo riro, pepper soup etc.
2. Yam and oil or sauce: any type of like egg sauce, tomato sauce, vegetable etc
3. Rice and stew, jollof rice, fried rice, oil rice or anytype of rice.
4. Bread and tea: anytype.
5. Plantain etc.
6. Pap and Akara (beans cake) This particular combination is becoming popular for dinner in my home since I discovered this woman that make really delicious Akara (bean cake).