Yam Balls Recipe: How to prepare Simple Savoury Stuffed Yam Balls

Yam balls are crunchy snacks made from cooked mashed yam; these are famous snacks enjoyed here in Africa, stuffed yam balls are very simple to and fun to make and can be enjoyed during any time of the day. You will agree with me that there are so many yam recipes and you cant run out of the many dishes you can make with your yam tubers lying just cool in your kitchen floor, apart from preparing yam into crispy chips, boiling it plain to eat with stew or coating them in egg wash to fry, you can prepare yam into yam balls and even stuff the balls with some vegetables or ground beef or fish before pan frying the balls. Yam balls are one of those easy and quick yam recipes which can go for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The yam balls can also be served as desserts, finger foods and party snacks.

Kids are very unique humans on the planet earth, but when it comes to foods, they tend to give a little headache, they can be very selective in terms of food and at the same time if they come to like a particular food, they would love it to the core, such that they would always be asking you to make that specific one they love for them daily, as if they are supposed to eat one particular food for the rest of their lives, anywhere, thats kids for you. I love kids and I understand their kind of foods because I was ones in their shoes, if you love kids and have them around you, you can easily know the type of food or snacks that they would love and eat most, great snacks like yam balls are kids favourite, you can make this for them.

Yam balls are African famous snacks, the good thing about this is that you can use boiled Irish or sweet potatoes, water yam or cocoyam to make these stuffed balls instead of using the usual white yam. This spicy yam balls recipe can be prepared in two ways. You can roll the yam balls stuffing them with coconuts flakes or candy, spring onions, peas, carrots, sweet corn, beans, or ground beef or ground fish and deep fry the balls in vegetable oil until crisp and also, and you can make the yam balls without stuffing them with any of the mentioned ingredients. Additionally, you can choose to Coat your yam balls with sesame seeds but in this case,you will have something like- “Sesame yam balls” or with grated coconuts and sugar or honey (coconut yam balls) and other things like egg, flour and bread crumbs could be used to coat the finished yam balls before baking or frying them. After the yam balls are fried and you bite into one, the taste is really delicious and the stuffing really resembles that of samosa, except for the ingredients that was used to prepare this.

Table of Contents

Stuffed Yam balls ingredients

1 medium sized white yam shared into 2 and use one part
2 scotch bonnet pepper or chilli peppers
Vegetable oil for deep frying of the stuffed yam balls
Salt to taste

For the yam balls filling you will need:

200g beef or fish, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 Chicken stock cube/ knorr cube
I small onion, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped spring onions
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 handful Green peas/ beans, optional

For coating of yam balls you will need:

1 large egg, whisked
cup all-purpose flour or bread crumbs
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon(optional)
teaspoon chilli powder
Salt to season both flour and the egg

Some ingredients for stuffed yam balls preparation

Directions on how to make simple savoury stuffed yam balls

Peel yam and cut into medium cubes, wash and place in salted water and cook for 20 minutes until the yam is tender.
While the yam is boiling, pound crayfish together with pepper.
Chopped carrots and green beans if you are using this and keep aside
Drain the yam from the liquid when it is soft enough.
Heat a pan on a stove and fry a little onion, add the ground beef or fish into it and stir fry
Season the fish/meat with chilli pepper, salt, 1 chicken stock cube, and thyme and stir fry until the meat is cooked. When the meat is cooked, add chopped spring onions, carrots or green peas depending on which vegetable you are using. Fry the vegetable for 3 minutes. They should still be crunchy after they are fried, dont over fry them.
Using a potato masher or mortar, mash the cooked yam, add salt and the pounded crayfish and pepper into the yam and mash until the yam is a bit smooth. Beat egg and season with salt and ginger powder, also season cup of flour with ground ginger and salt and keep aside.
After smoothing the yam, cut the smoothened yam like the size of a lemon and flatten it like a coin and scoop tablespoon of the meat/fish mixture into the centre of the flattened yam and roll it with your palms into a small ball.
Do this until the yam paste has finished. Drop the rolled yams in the egg wash and transfer into seasoned flour and roll to coat the yam ball. Repeat this until the yam paste is finished from the mortar, and then line all the prepared yam balls in a tray and set aside.
Heat a deep pan on a stove, add vegetable oil into the pan, when the oil has become hot, add the yam balls in to the oil and fry until all the sides are brown and crisp. This should be done in two batches.
Transfer the fried yam balls into a paper towel and fry the next set. When you are completely done frying all the yam balls, leave them in a strainer to drain the excess oil.
Enjoy your stuffed yam ball by dipping them in ketchup or tomato sauce.

Step by step guides to make simple savoury stuffed yam balls

Peel yam and cut into medium size and the rinse them and in salted water for 20 minutes till soft.

Process of cooking cut yams for yam balls preparation

2. Grind pepper with crayfish and keep aside.

Make sure all the ingredients for stuffed yam balls are in place

3. Cut carrots into smaller sizes and rinse green peas and keep all aside

4. When the yam has cooked drain the liquid out and heat a pan on stove, add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

5. Start frying chopped onions and garlic; season this with teaspoon chilli powder, ground nutmeg, 1 seasoning stock cube and a pinch of salt and stir. Add carrots, green peas and spring onions into the content and fry the vegetables for 3 minutes, they should steel be crunchy a little bit.

Frying of ground fish and vegetables

Make sure the vegetable is not overly cooked, 3 minutes is enough for this

6. Take the vegetable off from heat and proceed to mash the cooked yam with a potato masher or mash it with a mortar and pestle. Add the blended crayfish into the yam and mash until everything has combined together. Beat egg and season with salt and ginger powder, also season cup of flour with ground ginger and salt and keep aside.

7. After smoothing the yam, cut the smoothened yam like the size of a lemon and flatten it like a coin and scoop tablespoon of the meat/fish mixture into the centre of the flattened yam and roll it with your palms into a small ball.

Process of mashing cooked yam with mortar and pestle

8. Do this until the yam paste has finished. Drop the rolled yams in the egg wash and transfer into seasoned flour and roll to coat the yam ball. Repeat this until the yam paste is finished from the mortar, and then line all the prepared yam balls in a tray and set aside.

Mashed yam has been stuffed with fish and vegetables and the rolled into balls ready to be fried

9. Heat a pan on stove and add vegetable oil deep enough to fry yam balls and the oil has been heated, add the stuffed yam balls into the oil and fry them in batches until golden.

10. Transfer the fried yam balls into a paper towel and fry the next set. When you are completely done frying all the yam balls, leave them in a strainer to drain the excess oil.