Amala and Abula: Treat yourself to amazing Yoruba staple

Amala and abula is a food combination that is very peculiar to the Yoruba people of Southwestern Nigeria. Amala is made from cassava flour or yam flour. Abula, on the other hand, refers to a mixture of soups that are usually ewedu (draw soup) and gbegiri (beans soup) and palm-oil stew.

The first Amala joint is reported to have popped up in the 20th century (1900) in Ibadan, Oyo State and since then, thousands of Yoruba people in times past and present have taken to this delicacy.

How to prepare:

a) Amala

Ingredients: (For one medium-sized serving)

2 cups of water

1 cup of yam flour

Half a cup of hot water (for reservation

Directions:

Heat your water until it is bubbling hot.
Once the water is bubbling hot, take out some for later, turn the heat down and pour your yam/cassava flour into while simultaneously turning with a local turning stick
Continue to stir it till it comes together. It might look lumpy but keep turning till it has become a solid mass.
Make a circle in the centre and pour the reserved hot water in the middle.
Let it simmer for 35 minutes on low heat, with the heat, still turned down.
After the time is up, start stirring and turning till it becomes sticky smooth.
Scoop put with your carving spoon to your plate or nylon if you are not ready to eat and store in a cooler.

b) Ewedu

Ingredients:

2 cups of ewedu

1 tablespoon of locust beans (iru)

Seasoning and salt to taste

Tiny amount of potash or baking soda

Directions:

Rinse your ewedu to get the dirt out.
Put water in a pot and add you potash, allow to boil for few minutes then add your rinsed ewedu.
Wait for the leaves to get soft and then mash together with a special traditional mashing broom.
If you don’t have the mashing broom, just pour the softened ewedu into your blender and blend till it becomes smooth.
Pour back into the pot, add your stock cube, a little salt to taste and stir.
Allow to simmer for 1-2 minutes.
Serve.

c) Gbegiri

Ingredients:

1 cup of black-eyed peas or brown beans

2 tablespoons of palm oil

½ tablespoon of locust beans

1-2 tablespoons of grounded dried pepper

1 seasoning cube

Salt to taste

Directions:

Soak the peas/beans and peel the skin is off.
Put some water in a pot and add the peeled peas/beans.
Wait till gets soft and mushy. To aid the softening process, you can add onions to it.
If needed, you can add more water while waiting for it to get soft. Just make sure you do not add too much water.
Once it is reasonably soft, mash together with a mashing broom or use the blender procedure used above for the ewedu.
Pour the mashed beans into a sieve to sieve out the lumpy beans.
Put the mixture into a pot on low heat and allow to simmer for a minute.
Add in your palm-oil, locust beans, seasoning cube, salt and dried pepper.
Allow to simmer for 5 minutes and occasionally stir to prevent it from burning and allow flavour to mix well.
Serve with your Amala, Ewedu and sweet palm-oil stew.