Knowledge

What is traditional Nigerian food?

Answer

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

  1. Achara soup
  2. Adalu
  3. Afang
  4. Akara
  5. Alkaki
  6. Alkubus
  7. Amala
  8. Asun
  9. Atama soup
  10. Ayamase
  11. Balangu
  12. Banga rice
  13. Banga soup
  14. Bean-based
  15. Bitterleaf soup
  16. Chin chin
  17. Coconut candy
  18. Coconut rice
  19. Corn pudding
  20. Corn soup
  21. Dodo
  22. Dundu
  23. Eba
  24. Ebiripo
  25. Edikang-ikong
  26. Edo esan
  27. Efo riro/Efo elegusi,
  28. Egusi soup
  29. Ekuru
  30. Ewa aganyin
  31. Ewedu soup
  32. Fried rice
  33. Fufu
  34. Funkaso
  35. Fura
  36. Gbegiri
  37. Groundnut soup (Peanut soup)
  38. Ikokore
  39. pounded yam
  40. Jollof rice
  41. Kilishi
  42. Kiyaru Batonu
  43. Kokoro
  44. Kuli-kuli
  45. Kunu
  46. Lafun
  47. Maafe
  48. Margi
  49. Masa
  50. Meat
  51. Meat pie
  52. Miyan kuka
  53. Miyan taushe
  54. Miyan yakuwa
  55. Moin moin
  56. Mosa
  57. Nkwobi
  58. Ofada rice
  59. Ofada stew
  60. Ofe akwu
  61. Ofe owerri
  62. Ogbono soup
  63. Ogi/Akamu
  64. Ojojo
  65. Okpa
  66. Ora (Oha) soup
  67. Palm wine
  68. Pate
  69. Pepper soup
  70. Plantain chips
  71. Plantain pudding
  72. Puddings, pastes and porridges
  73. Puff-puff
  74. Rice stew
  75. Sinasir
  76. Snacks
  77. Soya bean milk
  78. Suya
  79. Tsire
  80. Tuwo masara
  81. Tuwo shinkafa
  82. Wara
  83. White soup
  84. Yam porridge
  85. Yams
  86. Zobo
  87. Zobo
  88. Ponmo (cow skin)

Sources cited:

https://journalofethnicfoods.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42779-021-00113-4

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