On this page, I have collated more than 80 different traditional foods found in Nigeria. Unfortunately, I won’t mention the ethnic groups associated with each traditional food to avoid too long content.
Starchy foods like yam, cassava, plantains, rice, and beans figure prominently in the Nigerian diet. They’re often consumed with a wide array of hearty soups and stews made with different types of meat and vegetables. However, Nigeria does not have one traditional food. With over 250 ethnic groups and 520 languages, it is plausible to say Nigerians have more than 400 different types traditional of food.
Traditional foods are food characterised by called four dimensions: place, time, know-how and cultural meaning. The latter indicates how some traditional food is consumed not only for a nutritional motive but also for ritual and symbolic value. that is consumed or associated with specific celebrations and/or seasons.
Thus, traditional foods are considered to be those that have been handed down from one generation to the next in terms of knowledge, techniques or practices used in their preparation or in the choice and use of the raw material, which is generally local, as well as the culture that produces it.
Here is a list of popular Nigerian traditional food
- Achara soup
- Adalu
- Afang
- Akara
- Alkaki
- Alkubus
- Amala
- Asun
- Atama soup
- Ayamase
- Balangu
- Banga rice
- Banga soup
- Bean-based
- Bitterleaf soup
- Chin chin
- Coconut candy
- Coconut rice
- Corn pudding
- Corn soup
- Dodo
- Dundu
- Eba
- Ebiripo
- Edikang-ikong
- Edo esan
- Efo riro/Efo elegusi,
- Egusi soup
- Ekuru
- Ewa aganyin
- Ewedu soup
- Fried rice
- Fufu
- Funkaso
- Fura
- Gbegiri
- Groundnut soup (Peanut soup)
- Ikokore
- pounded yam
- Jollof rice
- Kilishi
- Kiyaru Batonu
- Kokoro
- Kuli-kuli
- Kunu
- Lafun
- Maafe
- Margi
- Masa
- Meat
- Meat pie
- Miyan kuka
- Miyan taushe
- Miyan yakuwa
- Moin moin
- Mosa
- Nkwobi
- Ofada rice
- Ofada stew
- Ofe akwu
- Ofe owerri
- Ogbono soup
- Ogi/Akamu
- Ojojo
- Okpa
- Ora (Oha) soup
- Palm wine
- Pate
- Pepper soup
- Plantain chips
- Plantain pudding
- Puddings, pastes and porridges
- Puff-puff
- Rice stew
- Sinasir
- Snacks
- Soya bean milk
- Suya
- Tsire
- Tuwo masara
- Tuwo shinkafa
- Wara
- White soup
- Yam porridge
- Yams
- Zobo
- Zobo
- Ponmo (cow skin)
Sources cited:
https://journalofethnicfoods.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42779-021-00113-4