Delicious Nigerian Recipes For Vegans and Vegetarians

The most difficult aspect of being a vegetarian in Nigeria is figuring out what to eat day by day. Sure, planning your vegan diet for a day or two won’t cause any headaches. But once you have to scale up your meal planner over an extensive period – for instance, thirty days – you can quickly feel like you’re out of options.

Being a vegan or vegetarian doesn’t mean you have to starve or constantly repeat meals. You can explore diet-specific courses and sides like lemon cakes, tofu, or lentil soup. You can also modify the regular Nigerian recipes to fit your vegan requirements. By doing this, you enjoy the spice, sweetness, and umami of your favorite dishes without stepping out of your vegan lifestyle.

In this article, we highlight seven Nigerian recipes you can tweak to a vegan or vegetarian style. Start trying these today if you haven’t.

• Vegan Jollof Rice
• Yam Porridge
• Vegan Pepper Soup
• Efo Riro
• Vegan Fried Rice
• Moin Moin
• Ofada Rice

Nigerian Recipes that can Transformed into Vegan or Vegetarian Versions

You can expand your meal calendar with these Nigerian recipes reimagined to suit the vegan’s taste buds.

Vegan Jollof Rice

Jollof rice is a frequent guest in many Nigerian homes. As a vegan, you can tweak the recipe to reinvent this staple that’s become a symbol of celebration.

Ingredients:

• Rice (long-grain preferred)
• Tomato paste
• Fresh red bell peppers and scotch bonnet peppers (blended)
• Scotch bonnet peppers (blended)
• Vegetable oil
• Onions (diced)
• Vegetable broth or water (in place of chicken broth).
• Seasoning: thyme, curry powder, smoked paprika, salt, and vegan bouillon cubes
• Vegetables: carrots, green beans, and sweet corn

Instructions:

1. Heat vegetable oil in a pot, sauté onions, and add blended pepper, and bell pepper mix. Fry until reduced.
2. Stir in tomato paste and season with thyme, curry, smoked paprika, and bouillon cubes.
3. Add vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Stir in washed rice.
4. Cook on low heat until rice is tender and fluffy.
5. Mix in steamed vegetables and serve hot.

Cooking tip: Steam or roast the peppers before blending for added flavor.

Yam Porridge

Regular yam-porridge assembles several plant-based ingredients; the meal is crowned with animal-based proteins like fish or beef. Here’s how you can make yam porridge fully vegan.

Ingredients:

• Yam (peeled and diced)
• Palm oil
• Onions (sliced)
• Tomato and pepper blend
• Crayfish powder or a plant-based alternative
• Seasoning: salt and bouillon cubes
• Ugu (pumpkin leaves) or spinach

Instructions:

1. Heat palm oil in a pot, sauté onions, and add the tomato and pepper blend. Cook until the mixture thickens.
2. Add diced yams, water, and seasoning. Cook until the yam softens.
3. Mash some of the yams for a creamy texture. Stir in ugu leaves and cook for a minute.
4. Serve warm.

Vegan Pepper Soup

There’s no unitary way to make pepper soup – given that it’s an assortment of pepper, spice, and protein. However, there’s only one way to make a steaming pot of vegan pepper soup – by keeping everything plant-ey!

Ingredients:

• Assorted vegetables (carrots, mushrooms, or plant-based “meat”)
• Scent leaves or uziza leaves
• Pepper soup spice blend
• Chopped ginger.
• Onions (sliced)
• Scotch bonnet peppers
• Vegetable broth
• Seasoning: salt and vegan bouillon cubes

Instructions:

1. Bring vegetable broth to a boil and add onions, pepper soup spices, and chopped vegetables (carrots, mushrooms, etc).
2. Season with bouillon cubes and salt.
3. Let it simmer for 20 minutes. Add scent leaves and cook for another 5 minutes.
4. Serve hot.

Cooking tip: Enrich your vegetable broth by throwing in as many nutritious components as you can find, including celery, garlic, tomatoes, and carrots. You can also add yam chunks to your recipe, like The Vegan Nigerian shares.

Efo Riro

Efo riro stands out from other vegetables for its union of succulent leaves with a potpourri of spices, fish, beef, and other animal-based ingredients. So making efo riro without all the assortments is like listening to an orchestra composed of only harps.

The good news is, you can make it work the vegan way.

Ingredients:

• Ugu leaves or spinach (chopped)
• Palm oil
• Onions (sliced)
• Tomato and pepper puree.
• Locust bean substitute (optional, like mushrooms for umami)
• Seasoning: salt, bouillon cubes
• Bell peppers (sliced)

Instructions:

1. Prepare the puree by blending tomato and peppers (bell and habanero) until smooth.
2. Next, blanch the ugu or spinach leaves by soaking them in hot water for 2-4 minutes. Next, drain the hot water and run the vegetables under cool water. This process lets the leaves retain their texture and flavor.
3. Heat palm oil in a pot and sauté onions. Add the tomato and pepper puree and cook until thickened.
4. Stir in salt, bouillion cubes, the locust bean substitute, and sliced bell peppers.
5. Add ugu leaves or spinach and cook for 2–3 minutes.
6. Serve with rice, yam, or plantains.

Cooking tip: You can garnish the efo riro with mushrooms for a meaty feel.

Vegan Fried Rice

Nigerian fried rice uses a lot of vegetables – carrots, scallions, green beans, onions, etc. However, the quality of chicken broth affects the meal’s outcome. As a vegan, here’s how to work around this.

Ingredients:

• Rice (cooked)
• Vegetable oil
• Vegetables: carrots, green peas, sweet corn, and green beans
• Soy sauce
• Tofu.
• Bell peppers (chopped pepper).
• Onions and scallions (chopped)
• Curry powder, thyme, salt

Instructions:

1. If using leftover rice, take it out from the fridge and spread it in a bowl. If not, cook a few cups of rice until slightly tender. Spread it out in a bowl or tray so it can cool.
2. In a pan, stir-fry the tofu with salt and chopped pepper for up to five minutes. Set aside the tofu.
3. In the same pan, heat vegetable oil and sauté onions.
4. Add vegetables and stir-fry until tender. Season with curry powder, thyme, and soy sauce.
5. Mix in cooked rice and stir-fry for a few minutes.
6. Add your stir-fried tofu and stir until evenly distributed and warmed.
7. Garnish with chopped scallions and serve.

Moin Moin

Growing up, moin moin was a weekly affair. Every Saturday we would take turns executing minor tasks that contributed to the food-making – peeling beans, lofting a pail of peeled beans and pepper to the grinding shop, mixing salt, Maggi, and chunks of fish into the puree, etc.

Moin moin is still a dear meal, and here’s how you can prepare this delicacy in the vegan style.

Ingredients:

• Peeled beans (blended)
• Palm oil
• Onions
• Bell peppers and Scotch bonnet peppers (blended)
• Seasoning: salt and bouillon cubes
• Vegetables: carrots or mushrooms (optional)

Instructions:

1. Blend peeled beans with peppers, onions, and water into a smooth paste.
2. Mix in palm oil, salt, and bouillon cubes.
3. If desired, add chunks of carrots or mushrooms to garnish.
4. Pour into moin moin wraps or containers and steam for 40–60 minutes.
5. Serve hot with pap, bread, or oats.

Pronunciation tip: Do you say moi moi or moin moin? Neither word is wrong.

Ofada Rice with Ayamase Sauce

We love ofada rice, but it may not be for the right reasons. We love a plate of ofada rice and ayamase because the sauce wafts an aroma into the air, suffusing us with delight. More than the flavor, ofada rice serves numerous health benefits including improved digestive health.

As a vegan, here’s how to make ayamase sauce the vegan way so you can keep on eating ofada rice.

Ingredients for Ayamase Sauce:

• Green bell peppers and Scotch bonnet peppers (blended)
• Palm oil
• Onions (chopped)
• Mushroom chunks or plant-based protein
• Seasoning: salt, bouillon cubes

Instructions:

1. Bleach palm oil on low heat. Add chopped onions and fry until translucent.
2. Stir in the blended green pepper mix and cook until the oil floats to the top.
3. Add mushroom chunks or plant-based protein and seasoning. Simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Serve the sauce with boiled ofada rice.

Cooking tip: If vegetarian, you can garnish the sauce with some boiled eggs.

Wrapping Up

There you have it: seven meals to fit into your meal planner as a vegan or vegetarian in Nigeria. If you’re just easing into the vegan or vegetarian lifestyle, we know how strange it can be, especially to your tastebuds and digestive system.

The most important thing is to get support by connecting with a community of vegans. We wrote an article that shares tips for navigating the vegan lifestyle in Nigeria. Click the link below to read this free resource.

• How to Navigate a Vegan or Vegetarian Diet in Nigeria.