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Yam is a staple food which has become many peoples favourite food; yam can be served to kids and toddlers especially if the yam is well cooked and mashed. Cooking yam is pretty easy and you will have to keep to time while cooking your yams because they can become overly soft if not removed from heat in time. The good thing about yam is that almost everybody love yam and there are so many healthy yams recipes.If your yams have been lying in the kitchen for so long now and you have been thinking of what to do with those nice looking tubers, I have many easy recipes for here for you, and Im just going to describe the few yam recipes here in this article for you which might be of help to you.
A raw yam tuber
Yam is a great rich carbohydrate dish which can be served as dessert, finger food, snacks or as street food, and there are different varieties of yams. You could come across purple yams, yellow yams and white yams depending on the variety. The colours doesn’t mean that yams are wild or gone bad, it just tells that they were gotten from some special parent stocks which might be different from the common ones you’ve ever come across. if youve never loved yam in your life, maybe after reading these yam recipes, you will start developinga strong lovefor this rich staple. Yam has a way of satisfying your appetite since it is starchy and heavy at the same time. After eating yam, you can stay for up to 8 or more hours without feeling hungry immediately, yam has so many rich advantages and it is an energy giving food, when fried into chips, itcan be eaten as a side dish withjollof rice,fried ricepap, andcustardand you can easily bake yam if dont want to cook or fry them in oil.
Recipes you can prepare from Yam
Yams can be prepared in different forms, some of the easy and simple yam recipes include:
1. Yam porridge recipe-This is a porridge made by cooking yam slice in fish, meat or vegetable broth. This is usually made into a thick consistency and later garnish with different vegetables like diced tomatoes, spring onions, fluted pumpkin (ugwu) or spinach. There are two ways of preparing this yam porridge such as the frying method and the boiling method. In this both methods, the yam can be reddened with palm oil or red tomatoes and withbell pepperscan be added to make the yam porridge attractively red and also, dried fish, crayfish, meat and other condiments are usually added to make the porridge tasty and attractive to the eater.
Yummy yam porridge prepared with fish and spring onions
2. Boiled yam with stew/recipe– In this yam recipe, the yam is usually cut into thick slices and boiled in salted water until fork tender and it is then served with stew, red oil or sauce the yam sauce or stew is often prepared in many ways, such as: tomato stew, vegetable sauce which involves the use of different vegetables like carrots, green beans and spinach and egg sauce which is often prepared with egg and sliced tomatoes.
Boiled yam can be eaten with stew or sauce
3. Crispy yam chips recipe– These are crunchy thin sliced yam chips made from peeled yam. It is one of the best and easy recipes for breakfast and dinner and these often goes well with plantain chips and akara (beans cakes) and the chips can also be served with sauce or stew as a dip.
Tasty crispy yam chips serve with vegetable egg sauce
4.Egg coated yam recipe- (yamarita)–This is another yam dish similar to yam chips, but in its case the yam is usually sliced into thick rectangular shapes and cooked until soft. The soft yams are them deepened in egg wash (egg mixture) and in seasoned flour before deep frying them in vegetable oil to become crisp on the outside. This simple yam recipe is often refers to dun dun or yamarita among the western parts of Nigeria.
Yam fries coated with egg wash
5.Yam catfish pepper soup recipe- Yam catfish pepper soup, is a delicious and yummy yam dish. This is very simple to prepare just like the popularcatfish pepper soup. In this case, the catfish and the yams are prepared separately because of the flaky nature of the fish and in most cases, the fish can be added to the yam broth when it is almost time for it to get soft to prevent the fish from scatteringcompletely into the soup. This yam recipe is prepared exactly like any other pepper soup and goat meat, smoked fish, shrimps or beef can be added to make this yam pepper soup.
A savoury yam and catfish pepper soup
6. Pounded yam recipe– Pounded yam is usually prepared by pounding cooked cut yams into a smooth and lump less paste. This paste is then used for eating different delicious soups like afang soup. Egusi soup, editan soup, okra soup, edikaikong soup, white soup (afia efere) and the likes. Boiled cocoyam can also be prepared in this manner.
Pounded yam
7.Yam balls recipe– Yam balls are similar to puff puff, akara or buns. Yam balls are indeed tasty snacks prepared by frying cooked mashed yams in vegetable oil. The mashed yam is usually mixed with ground pepper, crayfish and salt, and it can be stuffed with vegetables, ground beef or fish or simply fried without being stuffed with anything.
Tasty yam balls
8. Amala recipe– amala is a Yoruba staple made from yam, together with the brown skin. This yam has been washed, soaked in water for a day and then sun dried before being grinded in the mill into smooth flour, the colour is sometimes deep or light brown after it has been made into bolus or swallow. It is usually prepared using the eba or semolina method. Amala is a major food eaten with ewedu, ogbono or okra soup by the south western parts of Nigeria
9. Yam paste as a thickener– Yam can also be used as a thickener to thicken Calabar white soup, grated cocoyam porridge (epkang nkukwo)and it can be served as a substitute to other thickeners like ibaba, achi, ofor, ukpo, cocoyam paste and Irish potato paste.
Yam paste for thickening of soup
10. Roasted yam recipe- Roasted yam is a common street food and at the same time it is a finger food which you can easily come across by the road side sold mostly by the road side traders. The yam tubers are often grilled with the brown back over a charcoal pot until completely roasted, and the yams are usually cut into biteable sizes and sprinkled with salt and after this peppers sauce is usually prepared with palm oil to serve as a dip for the roasted yam. This yam recipe is usually very sweet and mouth watery, especially when it is prepared with different bell peppers and some hot fresh peppers. This can also be prepared at home at your own comfort if you have a small charcoal pot or firewood tent.
11. Yam and beans porridge-Yam can be prepared with brown beans, broad beans, black beans or with any type of beans. To make this yam recipe, you will have to peel and cut yam into smaller cubes and add tothe beans you are cooking when the bean is almost completely soft. It is the same way you prepare the usual beans porridge, the only the difference is the addition of yam cubes. Irish potatoes, cocoyam or sweet potatoes can be substituted to yam in the recipe.
Yam is an energy giving food eaten in almost all parts of the world and these are just few recipes for yam out of the many recipes, if you have other yam recipes which are not described here, you can share them with us below if possible with their pictures.