Ingredients

Ugu leaf , also called fluted pumpkin leaf, is one of the most widely used leafy greens in Nigerian cooking, showing up across multiple soups rather than being tied to just one dish the way some ingredients on this site are. What Ugu Actually Is Ugu comes from the fluted pumpkin plant, and it’s the…

Bitter leaf is exactly what it sounds like — genuinely bitter, and genuinely essential to some of Nigeria’s most beloved soups. If you’ve only ever had bitter leaf soup at someone else’s house and never worked with the leaf yourself, this guide covers what it is, why it needs washing before cooking, and its reputation…

Semovita is one of the quickest swallows to prepare, and one of the most common alternatives to garri, fufu, or pounded yam in Nigerian households that keep more than one swallow option on hand. What Semovita Actually Is Semovita is a refined wheat product, essentially a fortified semolina flour, sold under that specific brand name…

Yam flour gets confused with poundo yam flour constantly, and it’s worth clearing up the difference right away. Poundo yam flour, already covered in our pounded yam guide, is used to recreate pounded yam’s smooth, stretchy texture. Yam flour, the subject of this article, is used to make a completely different swallow: amala. What Yam…

Utazi is one of three Nigerian leafy ingredients that get confused with each other constantly, alongside bitter leaf and uziza. All three carry some degree of bitterness and get used in small quantities as a seasoning rather than a bulk vegetable, but they’re genuinely different plants with different roles in the kitchen. What Makes Utazi…

Plantain flour occupies an interesting spot on this site’s ingredient list, genuinely useful for traditional Nigerian cooking, but also increasingly popular in gluten-free and health focused circles that have nothing to do with Nigerian food at all. Both audiences end up searching for the same product for very different reasons. What Plantain Flour Actually Is…

If fufu is the swallow people talk about most outside Nigeria, eba is the one Nigerians actually eat most often day to day. It’s fast, it’s simple, and it’s made from an ingredient nearly every Nigerian household already has on hand. What Eba Actually Is Eba is made by stirring garri (granulated, roasted cassava) into…

Say “yam” in a Nigerian kitchen and you’re talking about something completely different from what most American supermarkets sell under that name. This is one of the more common points of confusion for anyone shopping for Nigerian ingredients outside Nigeria, so it’s worth untangling before getting into how the real thing is actually cooked. Not…

Open almost any pot of Nigerian soup and you’ll find the same reddish orange base underneath everything else. That color comes from one ingredient: red palm oil. It’s not a garnish or a background note. In dishes like egusi soup and banga soup, it’s the foundation the entire dish is built on. What Makes It…