Food Minia

Okay, so I made some Red Spinach Efo Riro , a really delicious, exotic and extremely nutritious vegetable dish....seriously, this is one of those dishes I have eaten that I literally feel myself getting "younger" hehehe...., that's how much overloaded the dish is with antioxidants. I now regularly eat this wonderful vegetable dish and have decided to share some pictures of how I enjoy eating it....... Serving suggestions: serve generous amounts with pounded yam, gari. plantain. boiled yam, semovita, fufu, amala, boiled rice etc Red Spinach Efo Riro with Plantain Shards Red Spinach Efo Riro with Gari Green & Red Spinach Efo Riro Red Spinach Efo Riro with Pounded Yam

Plantains are just so versatile, and contrary to what you might have heard about them, they are a healthy source of slow release energy....! There are several ways of preparing and serving them.....baking, frying, roasting, mashing, pounding, making into snacks etc. What you make them into or how you process them is determined by their stage of ripeness. Read more about plantains here . I love plantains and have several recipes on then ( Check here for more recipes on plantains  ) I want you to get inspired by this simple plantain dish. No fuss, ready in a few minutes, especially if you already have some rich and smooth red pepper sauce/stew. The highlight of this dish goes to the sleek arrangement of the evenly sliced boiled plantain.......hmmm Simply gorgeous.... Make some as served with what ever you fancy. Mine is served with some stewed turkey.... What you need To make the boiled plantains: You need ripe plantains Salt. What to do Place enough water into a deep base pot and ad...

Garden Eggs (a family of aubergines) are readily available in Nigeria, sold on every street corner, and eaten largely for snack. There is nothing wrong with eating them for snacks, actually, as they add to your five a day fruit and veg requirement. ( Read more about Garden Eggs here) But because I aim to eat for health, I am always finding new ways to eat more vegetables, ways to actually make them the core of my meals. So after having Grilled them, Spiralized them, Stewed them, I have now also decided to bake them....! I have discovered that baking garden eggs actually gives them a better texture than boiling them. With baking, you do not have to remove the skin and this stills helps to keep the rigidity as compared to boiling where the skin is often removed and the flesh becomes mushy. I love the fact that I can keep the skin on, because it is so important to the overall fibre content of the veg. The skin also helps to keep the garden eggs in shapes and make them ideal for this p...

I like you to explore new ways of cooking moin moin because I totally understand how tedious the process can be. So I personally always explore new ways to make my life easier in the kitchen. I was working with a hotel in Lagos recently and was asked to come up with a new way to serve moin moin as a buffet option. Typically, moin moin is cooked in individual containers or portions.....so to save space on the buffet table and create a more compact and individualized platter, I decided to steam (not bake) the moin moin in a bread loaf tin. This made the moin moin come out shaped like a loaf, and was really easy to slice into individual portions, easy for diners to take slice by slice. See some of my delicious moin moin recipes: 1. Moin moin made with fresh beans 2. Moin moin made with bean flour What to do Make your moin moin batter as usual and pour into a non stick baking pan. Then carefully place the pan into a steamer and steam until cooked. The time may vary depending on how deep th...

Its been well established that avocado pears are great for health. They are quite delicious too, but that is when they have well ripened, and soft and full of flavour. Okay, there are sometimes when you get the craving for avocados and the ones you have at home, are not quite ripe enough... so what do you do. The normal thing to do is wait a few more days to allow them ripen and soften. But what if you do not have that patience... I know its not a common thing to do, but I cooked my not so ripe avocados and I absolutely loved it. You have to try it. What you need Firm, not so ripe avocados Cooked shrimps Chopped onions Chopped red peppers Pre cooked red pepper sauce Chopped green peppers Salt Black pepper Coconut oil What to do 1. Cut into the flesh of the avocado pears and dice evenly. Set aside. 2. Heat some oil in a pan and add the chopped onions, peppers and a good amount of pre made red pepper base sauce. (Use an amount which is in proportion with the other ingredients.).  3. ...

So, am really excited about this recipe....the tastes and flavours and textures I experienced from this dish, I cannot describe, you just have to find out for yourself....! First I have to say that the minced beef we get in the UK and the one I made myself (here in Lagos) with the local beef in Nigeria, are like chalk and cheese....miles apart in taste and texture and juiciness...omg! Already, Nigerians are known to favor beef with a firm texture, which is able to retain and soak up lots of flavours... This is because Nigerian cows are largely organic, fed on natural grass and vegetation, and put through a lot of "exercise" because they are reared by the a Nomadic Nigerian tribe known as the Fulanis. Everywhere they go, they take their cows and allow them to graze on natural vegetation as they move from one place to the other....actually they move in search of vegetation...! Anyway, I am totally in love with this beef, and when I decided to make some home-made mince out of th...

Plantains are so versatile, they can be used in whatever stage of ripeness they are...! I love that about them, and the interesting thing again is that they have a distinctive different taste at these different stages. Another interesting thing is that, their taste is further developed or enhanced by the method used to cook them and also the other ingredients paired with them...and I do have a craving for some of these distinct tastes from time to time, depending on my mood. Today's recipe works best with over ripe plantains....and because plantains do tend to ripen quickly, I do not tend to panic if I have an over ripe one in my larder. I just deep fry it first for a few minutes then transfer it into an oven to bake until it attains this "dryish" but not burnt texture, which is excellent to serve with some spicy salsa style sauce. And because the plantain is at its ripe state, it tastes really sweet, which also combines well with the saltiness and spiciness of the dip. T...