Nigerian Cuisine

Nigerian cuisine originates from the hundreds of native African ethnic groups that make up Nigeria, a country of 371 recognized ethnic groups each contributing its own cooking methods, ingredients and ceremonial food practice. The cuisine is known for being savory and spicy, using spices and herbs together with palm oil or groundnut oil to build deeply flavored sauces and soups, and its feasts range from elaborate ceremonial meals to abundant roadside snacks prepared by barbecue or frying. Native crops including yam, African rice, black eyed peas, millet, sorghum, okra and egusi sit alongside cassava and maize introduced through trade, and indigenous fruits such as the African star apple, African mango and garden egg remain important. Meals typically pair a carbohydrate base, rice, yam or potato, with a protein such as beef, goat, fish or chicken, in dishes including jollof rice, egusi and banga soups, pounded yam and asaro, and cassava preparations such as fufu and eba, with watermelon, pineapple, coconut, banana, orange, papaya and mango among the fruits that round out the diet.