Nigerian Foods
What They Are & How To Prepare Them
Nigerian foods are diverse and exciting. They are often unrefined natural foods, rich in dietary fibers, low GI carbohydrates and a wide range of highly nutritious and vitamin rich combination.
When people talk about foods eaten in Africa in general, and Nigeria in particular, they tend to forget that items highly sought after in Western countries like cassava, yams, plantain, palm oil, coconut and coconut oils, Nigerian brown beans, and rice do not grow in the West.
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| This is Fried Ripe Plantain, the Nigerian way, also called dodo. It is a common accompaniment to a dish of rice. | This is a dish of jollof rice, served with mio mio and salad, as well as king prawn shrimps and fresh fish. Hmm. | A Plate of egusi soup and assorted meat and fresh fish. Another great Nigerian soup. |
Most of these items come in from Africa, Asia and South America, yet they make up the bulk of Nigerian and African foods. What about those tropical fruits like oranges, tangerines, mangoes, pawpaw, African bread fruit, banana, African bush mango, carrots, to name but a few, these are everyday food items that make up the Nigerian food dish.
The list of foods eaten in Nigeria is literally inexhaustible. Being the most populous country in Africa, with about 160,000,000 inhabitants (population of 160 million) and over 500 totally different ethnic groups and languages (according to Wikipedia), all reflecting different cultures, cutting across different natural geographic zones including the Sahara desert, the Green Savanna, the thick Tropical Rain Forest, with different soil tendencies and properties, it is easy to see how diverse the staple food across the vast region called Nigeria could be.
A list of common Nigerian foods that cuts across most of the above lines, covering the major ethnic groups in nigeria, including Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Ijaw, Urhobo, Efik, Ibibios, Itsekiris, Binis, Ishans, Idomas, and many others, include:
Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. Its coast in the south lies on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean. The three largest and most influential ethnic groups in Nigeria are the Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. In terms of religion Nigeria is roughly split half and half between Muslims and Christians with a very small minority who practice traditional religion.
