Elsie UdohIt’s Christmas in a few weeks, a time to merry with family and, of course, enjoy delicious food.
Now, you might feel strained due to the high cost of things and wonder if you can afford to prepare the usual Christmas Jollof and chicken, especially the live one.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelWell, you can. Thankfully, Nigeria is blessed with different cuisines that will make great Christmas meals, are easy to prepare, and are affordable as well. Here are the 10 best Nigerian delicacies to enjoy Christmas day without breaking the bank.
Fried Rice
If we had to choose an affordable rice recipe between Fried and Jollof rice, Fried rice will always come first, and so we have decided to substitute the usual Christmas Jollof rice for Fried rice.
Fried rice is not only affordable but easy to prepare and it tastes really great once you get the hang of it. To make it easy, we have a quick recipe for you:
The ingredients you’ll need are:
- Cooked rice
- Chicken stock
- Groundnut oil
- Onion
- Mixed Vegetables (Carrots, Sweet Peas, Sweet Corn and green beans)
- Thyme
- Curry powder
- Spring onion
- Chicken stock cube
- Beef liver
- Salt to taste
- Pepper
How to Prepare:
- Add the boiled rice to the chicken stock in a pot.
- Cook on medium heat until the water is dried up.
- Preheat the oil in a pan on medium heat.
- Add the diced onions.
- Stir fry this for a minute or two.
- Add the spring onion, mixed vegetables, thyme, curry powder, salt, and stock cube.
- Then, add the beef liver and rice.
- Stir-fry for about 3 to 5 minutes on high heat.
- Your Fried Rice is ready to be served.
You can serve this with any protein of your choice and even alongside Jollof rice if you’re buoyant enough.
Efo Riro
You don’t even have to be Yoruba to try out this sumptuous vegetable soup for Christmas. A well-cooked Efo Riro soup will make the perfect Christmas meal to share with family, friends, and neighbours.
The ingredients you’ll need are:
- Efo tete or Shoko
- Red bell peppers (Tatashe)
- Scotch bonnet (Chillies)
- Onions
- Palm oil
- Locust beans (Iru)
- Smoked fish
- Ponmo
- Ground crayfish
- Salt
- Seasoning cubes
How to Prepare:
- Heat palm oil in a pot on medium heat for five minutes.
- Add the iru and chopped onions and fry for about 2 minutes.
- Blend the peppers and add to the pot. Then stir.
- Next, add the ponmo and ground crayfish and cook for another 3-4 minutes on low heat.
- Add seasoning cubes and salt to taste. Cook until oil begins to float on the top.
- Then, add the smoked fish and stir.
- Pour the vegetables into the pot and stir thoroughly.
- Add the smoked fish and cook for a few minutes and your Efo Riro is ready.
You can serve this with any swallow of choice, like eba, amala, or pounded yam or white rice.
Nkwobi
You don’t need to visit a local bar or restaurant to get this. Instead, you can have this from the comfort of your home and prepare it yourself.
Here are the ingredients you’ll need:
- Meat (chicken, goat, cow foot or assorted)
- Seasoning cubes
- Utazi
- Edible potash
- Palm oil
- Ugba
- Peppers (Scotch bonnet)
- Onions
- Ehu (calabash nutmeg)
- Salt
- Crayfish
How to Prepare:
- Season the meat with onions, seasoning cubes, and salt, then cook until tender.
- Next, boil the ugba for three minutes with small water.
- Dissolve the potash in one cup of water and filter it into a pot.
- Add the palm oil to the pot and stir until it thickens and becomes yellow.
- Then, add ground crayfish, Ugba, pepper, and salt to taste.
- Pound the utazi leaves, ehu, and peppers together and add a seasoning cube to it.
- Add the meat and stir to combine.
After cooking, slice some utazi leaves and add them to your meal to make it have the traditional look that you’re used to.
Pepper Soup
This is another sumptuous meal that you can prepare for Christmas.
The ingredients to prepare this are:
- Uziza leaves
- Goat meat, cow meat or catfish (depending on your preference)
- Crayfish
- Pepper soup spice (this is the secret ingredient; don’t skip it)
- Chilli pepper (the hotter, the merrier)
- Salt
- Onion
- Scotch bonnet
- Seasoning cube
- Water
How to Prepare:
- Rinse the goat meat or your preferred protein thoroughly and put it in a pot to boil.
- Add salt, seasoning cube, peppers, and onion and cook for 30 minutes.
- Next, add the pepper soup spice, chilli powder, and crayfish. Leave it to cook for another 10 minutes.
- Add the uziza leaves and let it simmer for another five minutes.
And with that, your festive pepper soup is ready. The beauty of pepper soup is that it can be eaten with just about anything, whether yam, rice, or more. Serve it hot and enjoy your meal with loved ones.
READ ALSO: 100 Christmas Card Wishes, Text Messages, Greetings For Loved Ones
Egusi Soup
This is a meal that is loved across Nigeria and should definitely make it to your Christmas menu.
Let’s start with the ingredients you’ll need to prepare Egusi soup.
- Meat
- Eguso
- Roasted fish
- Crayfish
- Ugwu or bitter leaf (thoroughly rinsed)
- Seasoning cubes
- Palm oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- Stockfish
How to Prepare:
This is the frying method but you can always use any other method that you know how to.
- Start by heating a pot on fire to dry.
- Then pour in the palm oil and leave to heat for two minutes without bleaching it.
- Pour the grounded egusi into water to form a paste (not too thick and not too watery.)
- Add this in lump batches to the heated oil (you can just pour this in at once and stir if you do not want your Egusi to have lumps).
- When your Egusi is fried, add about six cups of water to it or you can just use your stock (if available).
- Add the cooked meat, the roasted fish, stockfish, ground crayfish, seasoning cube, and ground scotch bonnet pepper, then cover and allow to boil for the next 10 minutes. Stir this at intervals so that it doesn’t burn.
- Next, add the leaves you’ll be using into the pot and add salt and pepper to taste. Allow this to boil for a while and keep stirring until it is ready.
For the proper Christmas delicacy, serve your egusi soup with pounded yam. You can also use other swallows like Eba or Semo.
Pepper Turkey or Chicken
Your Christmas delicacy is incomplete without a nicely cooked turkey or chicken on the side. Here’s an easy recipe to ensure that your protein tastes great.
Ingredients
- Chicken or Turkey
- Tatashe peppers
- Scotch bonnet peppers or habanero peppers
- Onions
- Vegetable oil
- Seasoning cubes
- Thyme
- Salt
How to Prepare
- Rinse the chicken or turkey thoroughly.
- Then, massage them with thyme, onions, seasoning cubes, and other available spices. Leave this to marinate for about 30 minutes to one hour.
- Next, put the chicken or turkey into a pot and boil without adding water.
- When the chicken/turkey is ready, grill or fry them until golden brown.
For the Sauce:
- Pour the vegetable oil into a dry pot and heat it.
- Blend the peppers and add to the pot. Fry this on medium heat until the water dries up.
- Add the grilled/boiled chicken or turkey and stir very well until they are covered all over with the peppered sauce.
- Add salt and other spices if necessary.
Serve this with your Christmas rice or any other meal that you’ll be preparing.
Fisherman Soup
If you love seafood or just want to try it out, then you can prepare this Southern delicacy for Christmas.
Here’s how to do so, starting with the necessary ingredients:
- Fresh fish
- Prawns
- Dried fish
- Smoked fish
- Crayfish
- Atarodo
- Onions
- Palm oil
- Salt
- Okro
- Ugwu
How to Prepare
- Slice the onions and peppers.
- Add the fresh fish, prawns, dry fish, and smoked fish to a pot; season with onions, peppers, and dried crayfish, and allow this to cook for five minutes.
- Then, add the okro and stir. Cook this for another 5-7 minutes.
- Then pour in the palm oil and cook for a few minutes.
- Wash and slice the Ugwu, then add it to the soup. Leave this to boil for a while and your meal is ready.
Serve with garri or pounded yam.
Banga Soup
This is another soup to try out from the southern region, which you can eat with starch or white rice.
Here’s how to prepare it.
Ingredients Needed
- Protein of choice
- Onions
- Pepper
- Seasoning cube
- Stockfish
- Scotch bonnets
- Banga spice
- Dried bitter leaves
- Banga stick
- Dried/Smoked fish
- Crayfish
- Salt
- Palm nut extract
How to Prepare:
- Rinse the meat and boil with onions, pepper, seasoning cubes, and salt until tender.
- Add the stockfish and cook for 10 minutes.
- When this is ready, separate the meat from the stock.
- Next, pour the palm nut extract into a pot and add the meat stock. Cover and leave this to cook until the oil begins to float on top of the soup.
- Blend the scotch bonnet and onion and add to the palm nut.
- Add the Banga spice, dried/smoked fish, meat, Banga stick, and crayfish and season to taste. Cover and leave to cook for 10 minutes.
- Add the dried bitter leaves and leave this on fire to thicken to your taste.
You can add catfish to your Banga soup for extra taste and more richness in your soup.
White Soup
This meal is mostly prepared on special occasions and this is one of them. Here’s what you’ll need to prepare white soup:
- Yam
- Crayfish
- Seasoning cubes
- Uziza seeds
- Uziza leaves
- Dried or smoked fish
- Snails
- Utazi leaves
- Salt
- Pepper
- Meat
To prepare:
- Start by boiling the yam, which will serve as a thickener for the soup. Pound and set aside when boiled.
- Blend the crayfish and uziza seeds.
- Slice the leaves and clean the snail thoroughly.
- Now put the meat in a pot with water. Season with the seasoning cubes and salt and allow to boil.
- Add the blended crayfish and uziza seeds, then pepper and salt to taste.
- Put the pounded yam in batches and leave it to dissolve and thicken.
- Then add the uziza and utazi leaves.
- Let this boil for a few minutes and then your meal is ready.
Fruity Zobo Drink
What’s a Nigerian delicacy without a drink to pair with it? You can serve your Christmas meal with a Zobo drink that is fruity and healthy. Here’s a simple recipe for you.
You’ll need:
- Zobo leaves (hibiscus leaves)
- Water
- Ginger
- Pineapple
- Oranges
How to Prepare:
- Wash the zobo leaves and place them into a bowl.
- Peel off the pineapple skin and don’t throw it away.
- Next, slice the pineapples.
- Peel and cut the ginger.
- Cut the orange and take out the back and seeds.
- Put your zobo leaves, pineapple skin, pineapple, ginger, and orange into a pot.
- Add some water and allow to boil for about 25-30 minutes. Allow this to cool down when ready then sieve using a cheesecloth.
- Blend the fruits in a blender or use a juicer to extract the juice.
- Pour this juice into the sieved zobo and stir.
- Refrigerate, then serve.
Now you can enjoy your Christmas delicacies with a juicy, fruity zobo that is both tasty and healthy.
Conclusion
There you have it. These are the 10 best delicacies to enjoy Christmas day without breaking the bank.
Let us know which of these dishes you’ll be preparing this Christmas.
Elsie Udoh is an SEO content writer who specialises in writing engaging stories that resonates with diverse audiences. She studied mass communication at the Lagos State University.
