What is traditional Nigerian food?

On this page, I have collated more than 80 different traditional foods found in Nigeria. Unfortunately, I won’t mention the ethnic groups associated with each traditional food to avoid too long content.

Starchy foods like yam, cassava, plantains, rice, and beans figure prominently in the Nigerian diet. They’re often consumed with a wide array of hearty soups and stews made with different types of meat and vegetables. However, Nigeria does not have one traditional food. With over 250 ethnic groups and 520 languages, it is plausible to say Nigerians have more than 400 different types traditional of food.

Traditional foods are food characterised by called four dimensions: place, time, know-how and cultural meaning. The latter indicates how some traditional food is consumed not only for a nutritional motive but also for ritual and symbolic value. that is consumed or associated with specific celebrations and/or seasons.

Thus, traditional foods are considered to be those that have been handed down from one generation to the next in terms of knowledge, techniques or practices used in their preparation or in the choice and use of the raw material, which is generally local, as well as the culture that produces it.

Here is a list of popular Nigerian traditional food

1. Achara soup
2. Adalu
3. Afang
4. Akara
5. Alkaki
6. Alkubus
7. Amala
8. Asun
9. Atama soup
11. Ayamase
12. Balangu
13. Banga rice
14. Banga soup
15. Bean-based
16. Bitterleaf soup
17. Chin chin
18. Coconut candy
19. Coconut rice
20. Corn pudding
22. Corn soup
23. Dodo
24. Dundu
25. Eba
26. Ebiripo
27. Edikang-ikong
28. Edo esan
29. Efo riro/Efo elegusi,
30. Egusi soup
31. Ekuru
33. Ewa aganyin
34. Ewedu soup
35. Fried rice
36. Fufu
37. Funkaso
38. Fura
39. Gbegiri
40. Groundnut soup (Peanut soup)
41. Ikokore
42. pounded yam
44. Jollof rice
45. Kilishi
46. Kiyaru Batonu
47. Kokoro
48. Kuli-kuli
49. Kunu
50. Lafun
51. Maafe
52. Margi
53. Masa
55. Meat
56. Meat pie
57. Miyan kuka
58. Miyan taushe
59. Miyan yakuwa
60. Moin moin
61. Mosa
62. Nkwobi
63. Ofada rice
64. Ofada stew
66. Ofe akwu
67. Ofe owerri
68. Ogbono soup
69. Ogi/Akamu
70. Ojojo
71. Okpa
72. Ora (Oha) soup
73. Palm wine
74. Pate
75. Pepper soup
77. Plantain chips
78. Plantain pudding
79. Puddings, pastes and porridges
80. Puff-puff
81. Rice stew
82. Sinasir
83. Snacks
84. Soya bean milk
85. Suya
86. Tsire
88. Tuwo masara
89. Tuwo shinkafa
90. Wara
91. White soup
92. Yam porridge
93. Yams
94. Zobo
95. Zobo
96. Ponmo (cow skin)