Efo Riro Recipes: A Yoruba delicacy

 Efo Riro Recipes: A Yoruba delicacy


Efo Riro is a rich vegetable soup of the Yoruba people of western Nigeria. The vegetable that will be used to cook this soup is Efo Shoko or Efo Tete (Green Amaranth). If these are not readily available where you live, leafy or frozen spinach are good substitutes.

Ingredients for Efo Riro

  • Assorted meat and fish. use a combination of the following:
  •  Beef
  • Shaki (cow tripe)
  • Smoked fish
  •   Dry fish
  •   Stock fish
  •  20cl palm oil
  •  500g Efo Shoko
  •  5 pepper tatashes
  • 2 tablespoons ground crayfish
  •  2 red onions
  • 2 small stock cubes
  •  2 tablespoons of  locust beans(to taste)
  •  Salt and Habanero/Scotch Bonnet Pepper (to taste)

 These are the two vegetable that will be used in cooking Efo Riro’s. The first and most popular choice is Efo Shoko, the second is Efo Tete (Green Amaranth). Both are available in the Nigerian market.

Other meats you can add to Efo Riro: 

Different types of meat and fish you can add to Efo Riro, it is better not to hesitate to add: snails and other offals, ponmo (cow skin) etc.

 Watch video here:

 



Before cooking Efo Riro

 
 If you are using hard fish, marinate it for a few hours. Fry the fish until it is soft and boneless.
 Cut the vegetables
 Wash the tatashe and grind it until it becomes small. Prepare other ingredients: pound/blitz peppers, slice onions and ghee crayfish.
 

Cooking Directions:

 
 Start by cooking the shaki as little water as possible., so add a little water at a time and add more when cooking.

When the shaki starts to curl, add the dried fish and stock fish. 

When it is almost done, add the beef, stock cubes and some onions and cook until all the meat and fish are done. Leave them aside. 

In another pot, pour palm oil and heat it. Once hot, add the remaining onions. 

Fry the tatashe peppers until there is no water left in them. This should take about 15 minutes. 

Add the locust bean and crayfish and stir well.

Add cooked meat and fish, stir well. 

Add the vegetables, stir well, cover and once the mixture is hot again, add salt to taste and remove the pot from the heat.
 
Serve Efo Riro with semolina, Amala, Eba or other fufu. It also goes well with boiled white rice.

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