As the name states, this recipe is a basic yam and vegetable mix. The good thing is that this recipe lets you try a wide range of leafy vegetables which can go with the yam staple: green Amaranth, fluted pumpkin, water leaves, spinach etc.
Nigerian Yam & Vegetable [Video]
Ingredients
- 1kg white puna yam
- Leafy Vegetable: Spinach/Fluted pumpkin/Green Amaranth/Water Leaves
- Red palm Oil: to colour
- 4 okra fingers (optional)
- Ukpaka or Ugba: a handful (optional)
- 2 medium onions
- Chilli Pepper & Salt (to taste)
- 2 stock cubes
Before you cook Yam & Vegetable
- Peel and cut the yam tuber into 2 inch cubes. Wash the yam cubes and place in a sizeable pot.
- Wash and cut the leafy vegetables, I used frozen spinach. Just leave to defrost a little bit and cut into small pieces. Then when fully defrosted, wring out the excess water.
- Rinse the ukpaka and cut the onions and okra into tiny pieces. Grind or blend the chilli pepper. Put all these in a separate pot and set aside. The okra only helps the vegetables stick together so it is optional and with the ukpaka, you can go the extra mile with this recipe. 🙂
Cooking Directions
- Pour enough water to cover the yam cubes and cook till the cubes are soft and the water is a bit like porridge.
- Now, pour out the water from the pot, leaving the yam cubes in the pot. Cover the pot to retain the heat.
- Add some water from the yam (about 1 cooking spoon) to the pot containing the vegetables. Cook till the vegetable is softened by the heat. Be careful not to overcook the vegetable.
- Pour the cooked vegetables and other ingredients into the pot containing the yam cubes. Add the palm oil and salt to taste.
- Stir with a wooden spoon till all the ingredients have mixed well.
- The yam and vegetable is ready to be served.
Serve on its own or with Fried Plantain.