5 Lovely YAM Dishes To Make You Ask For More

Yams are widely known to and appreciated by
Nigerians because of how they can be used to
prepare a variety of delicious quick-to-prepare
meals.
Jumia Travel shares 5 delicious Nigerian yam
dishes that’ll leave you reeling from its
sumptuous taste.
YAM PORRIDGE
The Western Nigeria version of this meal is
Asaro. The main difference between the normal
yam porridge and Asaro is the blended peppers,
palm oil and occasional ‘Ata Dindin’ added to
the Asaro. Normal yam porridge can be cooked
with vegetable oil as an alternative to palm oil
and need not have as much pepper as the
Asaro.
Its method of preparation is simple with the
need of only few main ingredients like
seasoning, palm or vegetable oil and smoked or
dry fish (or mashed chicken depending on your
preference).
POUNDED YAM
It’s a very delicious and popular ‘swallow’ meal
that’s eaten with various Nigerian soup recipes
like Egusi soup, Okro soup, Efo Riro etc. It is
traditionally prepared by cooking pieces of white
yam and pounding the pieces in a mortar with a
pestle, until the yam is soft and stretchy.
Recently, a version of pounded yam called
‘Poundo Yam’ has been introduced to relieve
some of the stress of the traditional pounded
yam preparation process. The ‘poundo yam’ is
mainly prepared by stirring yam flour in hot
water until it’s soft and stretchy.
YAM AND FRIED EGGS
Every Nigerian child has this meal as a
lunchtime companion while growing up. If your
parents didn’t pack it in your school lunchbox, it
was served for lunch in the dining hall during
‘long-break’.
It’s also a simple meal to prepare, and it mainly
consists of boiled yam and fried eggs. Onions,
pepper and seasoning are added alongside to
improve the taste of the fried eggs.
YAM BALLS
It’s a hand held tasty snack that makes for a
nice side dish or appetizer. It is usually served
in the ‘small chops’ section of parties. The dish
can be stuffed with varieties of fillings such as
minced/ground beef, mashed chicken, fresh
shrimp, fish, bell peppers, sweet corn, spring
onions, sliced onions etc. White yam is usually
cooked, and blended and mixed into smooth and
stretchy dough, before being wrapped into a ball
with fillings and fried in hot oil.
OFE NSALA (WHITE SOUP)
This is a tasty and mouth-watering soup that’s
popular in the eastern part of Nigeria. The soup
can be cooked with cat fish, fresh fish or
assorted meat and dried fish. It contains no
palm or vegetable oil, and is characterized by its
light color.
Here, the yam cubes are peeled and pounded to
smooth paste (using a mortar and pestle, or a
blender). Yam powder can also be used instead
of yam cubes. Some hot water is added to the
yam flour, and stirred continuously until a
smooth paste is made. The yam paste is then
added to a watery mix of pepper, crayfish
(optional), chopped onions, salt, seasoning,
cooked assorted meat and dried fish (or catfish
or fresh fish, depending on your preference). The
paste will completely dissolve after a while,
signaling that the delicious Ofe Nsala is ready.
The soup is usually served with pounded yam,
eba, amala or fufu.