Nigerian Foods that Will Fights Heart Attack

Heart attack or heart disease can actually be prevented, controlled or completely eliminated by proper dieting and exercise – Dr Chauncey W. Crandall

Bulk of what you will be reading here are opinions of Dr Chauncey W. Crandall, a distinguished Cardiologist that have over 40000 heart surgeries to his belt. He also is chief of the Cardiac Transplant Program at the world-renowned Palm Beach Cardiovascular Clinic in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

While it is fun to talk about making delicious Nigerian foods it is also very important to note that most delicious looking foods may actually cause harm to your heart and body cells.

Henceforth, the Nigerian kitchen would not just talk about making delicious Nigerian foods, look out for articles like this occasionally, it is very important that you sturdy every bit of them.

We are looking at Nigerian foods that fight heart disease; it has been proven statistically that over 50 percent of the world population does not have a perfectly healthy hearts, the worst case of an unhealthy heart eventually results to heart attack or even instant death.

This proves that you can have a sick heart without knowing it and you can also have a sick heart for a very long time. The advice is usually to see a doctor if you notice any dissimilar internal reaction.

However, I learned a long time ago that prevention is better than cure – a Nigerian adage.

According to Dr Chauncey W. Crandall, the major causes of heart diseases are fat and sugar; there…I said it.

While it may seem impossible to eliminate these two elements from our daily meals, the reason for this article is to proffer an easy way around them. I hope to inspire you to make conscious effort to supplement these elements in certain possible cases with its harmless alternatives.

I am going to list some of the foods or food items that should be eliminated from our daily diets and also go ahead to proffer a healthier alternative, since this alternative actually reduces the risk our heart diseases and attacks, one can actually say that they aid in fighting heart diseases

Nigerian foods that fights heart attack

These alternative Nigerian foods help in fighting heart diseases or heart attack.

For starters, I would strongly suggest that you go easy on canned, processed foods, instead of using canned/sachet tomatoes try just the fresh ones, it may be a little expensive but the benefits out-weighs any money you can possibly spend.

Fried foods and soft drinks should also be less in your daily diet.

I have since stopped using sugar and switched over to honey, even when I use honey, I use it sparingly. While we cannot completely eliminate sugar from our diet because they are even contained in simple foods like rice, cassava and yam, the idea is to go easy on these foods.

Instead of eba/fufu or semo, try unrefined wheat; whole grains fights heart disease. They includes: Whole wheat, Whole oats/oatmeal, Whole-grain corn, Popcorn, Brown rice, Whole-grain barley, Bulgur (cracked wheat), Millet, Quinoa, Sorghum.

Animal fat is not just dangerous, it should be avoided at all cost, be sure to always wash your meats properly with hot water, removing every sagging fat, avoid butters and margarine with high fat content.

Another important point raised by Dr Chauncey W. Crandall is the level of your good cholesterol against the bad cholesterol, according to him; the level of your bad cholesterol against goods cholesterol can play a vital role in the state of your heart.

According to him, proper exercise and good dieting helps to raise your good cholesterol level while diminishing the bad cholesterol level.

He highly advised against smoking and suggested that you try fish and chicken instead of red meat. Fishes contains omega 3 which is responsible for fighting heart diseases. I am talking about fresh or frozen fishes; sometimes the roasted, smoked fishes are not so good.

Lastly, you should also take time to rest after a very busy day and also cultivate the habit of exercising regularly. Proper rest and exercise plays a vital role in the state of the heart and even body cells.

Eat lots of fruits, nuts, endeavor to supplement a meal with a plate of Fruit-Salads, try replacing some starchy foods with legumes (all beans species), unripe plantain recipes. I made this delicious meal recently, if you add vegetables, it becomes really healthy. And you should try something like this occasionally instead of the usual eba and soup.

plantain-porridge

I have been able to list some of the foods that cause heart attack, and how to prevent, control and ultimately eliminate heart attack by eating the right Nigerian foods. I would like to hear your thought.

How to Prepare Delicious Nigerian Nkwobi

This meal has been around for a very long time, At first it was made with just bush meat (edible wild animals), such as squirrel, grass cutter, rabbit and even antelopes, but along the line people starting experimenting with domestic animals and even poultry birds.

If you are among the people that are asking “what is nkwobi?” here is a simple definition; It is Igbo delicacy that is made with all kinds of meats, in a little while you will read all the processes involved in making it and why it is very popular within the eastern part of Nigeria. You will also learn about all the ingredients used in making it and different kinds of meats that could also be used.

I remember vividly the first time I had a plate of Nigerian nkwobi, it was very delicious and very pepperish, also you can use pepper to your taste. The last recipe I ate was made with chicken, but like I said initially, your choice of meat can vary but the methods remain the same.

Here are the ingredients that are used in making Nigerian nkwobi (for five to ten persons.)

2 kg Meat (chicken, wild meat, goat, cow tail, assorted meat)

2 cubes of knorr

Utazi leaves – a handfull

Edible potash (one teaspoon)

Palm oil (half cup) 125ml

Ugba – 1 cup

Onions – 2 slice

Salt and pepper to taste

The first step is parboiling the meat with some ingredients; onions, a cube of maggi/knorr and salt will be enough. Then allow to cook for another fifty to sixty minutes until the meat is completely soft.

This is necessary because nkwobi as well as Nigerian pepper soup is basically made with very soft meats, just so it is not hard to chew.

Most preparation processes take place in a small mortar, (an African carved hollow wood), but you can use a pot if you are not in Nigeria. This is just how it has been, some of Nigerian food customs have been around for years and we probably haven’t found a credible reason why they should be revoked.

Slice the onions and utazi, then set aside on a plate, some people choose to add these two during the preparation process while others use them for decoration purposes. One way or another, Utazi and onions should be part of the ingredients used in preparing Nigerian Nkwobi.

You can boil the ugba in small amount of water for about 2 to 3 minutes, this technique is hygienic, it helps to eliminate every possible health threat. Note that this ingredient is processed with the help of a harmless bacteria. This is just to be on the safe side even though most Nigerians eat ugba without heating in any way.

Cook the meat until it is almost dry, check to see the water level. This is important because you don’t end up with another kind of pepper soup, Stir the cooking meat in the pot to be sure that it doesn’t burn. Did I say that it is also necessary to cut the meat to tiny bits?

Dissolve the potash in about 150ml (half cup) of water and filter about half a cup into the pot, you will learn a little bit about this from the video below. You will know exactly how this is done, although most Nigerians are familiar with this technique.

Add about half a cup of palm oil into the pot, stir to obtain a thick yellow paste (ncha) and you are just few steps away from having a very delicious nkwobi, also add two spoons of ground crayfish, Ugba, pepper and salt to taste, then stir very well before adding the meat.

Note: If the meat is too hot, it would dislove the “ncha” and turn it redish> allow the meat to cool for 10 minutes before using.

Add the sliced onions and utazi but reserve a little of both for decoration. The utazi is very necessary because it adds a faint bitter taste which is an integral part of nkwobi and some other Nigerian foods.

Stir, turn out in a round plate and decorate with sliced onion, pepper and utazi. That is just how to make a delicious plate of the popluar Nigerian Nkwobi.

Preparing Turmeric Rice (Yellow Rice)

Turmeric Rice is one of the very basic yet delicious rice recipes to prepare in your kitchen. There's no tomato stew to make in this recipe so don't bother about preparing this rice dish?

Ingredients

• A Long grain parboiled rice
  • If you stay in the USA/UK, use 2 cups.
  • If you stay in Nigeria, use ½ De Rica cup.
  • If you have a weighing scale, use 350g or you may use 0.8lbs.
• use 2 teaspoons turmeric powder
• use 1 teaspoon Nigerian curry powder
• use1 teaspoon black pepper powder
• use 1 small red onion
• use 2-3 cups chicken stock
• A small quantity of red pepper
• A handful green peas
• Salt (to taste)

Notes about the ingredients

This following image shows the quantities of some of the ingredients you may use.

1. Use enough turmeric powder to colour the rice. Please note that the rice may not look so yellow when you add the parboiled rice to the turmeric mix in the pot but when the rice is done, it will become very yellow.
2. Turmeric is known as yellow ginger in Nigeria. It is known as ajo or ata ile pupa in Yoruba and kurkum in Hausa. You can buy turmeric powder in big supermarkets eg Shoprite in Nigeria.
3. I used chicken stock for this recipe because I served the rice with Onion Baked Chicken. I used soft chicken which I baked from raw so no boiling of the chicken done to get some chicken stock. This means that for taste, I added chicken stock which I always have in my freezer. I get this chicken stock when I prepare side dishes like Peppered Chicken.
   
   If you want to prepare this with Fried Chicken or Grilled Chicken, cook the chicken with thyme, onions, stock cubes and whatever else you use to season your chicken. Then add the water from cooking that chicken (chicken stock) to the rice during Step 1 in the cooking directions.
4. If you are in Nigeria, red bell peppers are available in big foreign supermarkets. Use tatashe as alternative to the red pepper. The quantity of red pepper you need is so small, see the video below.

Before you cook Turmeric Rice or Yellow Rice

1. you have to Rinse and cut the red onions into small pieces.
2. Rinse, remove the seeds and cut the red pepper into small pieces.
3. Prepare the chicken you will serve it with. You can serve with Peppered Chicken or Onion Baked Chicken.
4. Parboil the long grain parboiled rice. For the quantity of rice stated above, add to boiling water, stir, cover the pot and once it boils again, leave to boil for 10 minutes or till you can easily cut the grain of rice with your finger nails.

Cooking Directions

1. Pour the chicken stock into a sizeable pot.
2. Then Add the turmeric powder, Nigerian curry powder and black pepper.
3. Cover and cook till it's boiled.
4. Add the parboiled rice, stir and make sure that the liquid in the pot is at the same level as the rice. If not, top it up.
5. Taste for salt and add some if necessary. Stir, cover again and start cooking on medium heat.
6. If you have parboiled the rice correctly as described above, the rice should be done by the time the water dries up. Taste to confirm. If not, you will need to add more water and reduce the heat to prevent burning. Continue cooking.
7. When you can no longer see the water in the rice, add the diced red pepper, onions and green peas. Stir only the top of the rice, cover and continue cooking.
8. The rice is done when all the water dries up.
9. Stir with a spatula till the vegetables and the rice are well combined.
10. That's all you need to make yourself happy!

For meat, serve with Peppered Chicken or Onion Baked Chicken. For side dishes, serve with Fried Plantain, Nigerian Moi Moi, Nigerian Salad or Coleslaw.

Click here to send me your feedback and questions about preparing this Turmeric Rice.

for proper understanding you may want to watch the video below 

How to Prepare Nsala Soup(white soup)

Nsala soup is one of the most delicious of all Nigerian soups, this year alone I have made and eaten more of it than any other soup in Nigeria.

I enjoy lots of the foods in Nigeria but there are quite some of them that kinda tastes better and more delicious to me. IMHO.

Melon soup (ofe egusi) for instance is like the number one for me.

The reason is because… sometimes we like to eat a combination of two or more different soups in our home and egusi blends perfectly with most of the soups in Nigeria, sometimes I even blend with nsala soup (also called white soup).

The image below is a combination of both white soup and egusi soup.

It is the only soup in Nigeria that is made without palm oil… just like pepper soup and ewedu soup, the use of palm oil is not very necessary.

It is very popular in the south and eastern part of Nigeria, the efiks and igbos are the top makers and consumers of this delicious soup. So if you are dating or married to a man from the south or eastern part of Nigeria, you can try giving him a meal of pounded yam and ofe nsala (as the Igbos call it) tonight.

Below are the ingredients for making this delicious Nigerian soup, the ingredients below would serve about five persons for three consecutive times. Soups in Nigeria can be refrigerated for up to two weeks, most times it is better to make lots of soups and then refrigerate the remainder.

Ingredients For White Soup

Yam (six to eight slices…baby fist size)
Ground crayfish (1 cup)
knorr cubes (3 cubes)
Ground uziza seeds (2 Teaspoons)
Uziza Leaves
Dried fish (two medium sizes)
Snails (Optional)
Meat of choice {I prefer Goat Meat} (2KG)
Utazi leaves (optional)
Salt and Pepper to taste.
Red Ground Pepper to taste

It would take about sixty to eighty minutes to prepare a delicious pot of nsala soup; although, sometimes it goes a little above that… depending on your speed and proficiency.

You might wanna start by peeling and boiling the yam, this should be pounded with a mortar and pestle. Pounded yam serve as the thickener but can also be eaten with other Nigerian soups.

Grind the crayfish, uziza seeds, wash and slice the uziza seeds. You should also go ahead and wash the snail in case you are using them. Snails are quite expensive in Nigeria so if you can’t purchase them it is better you forget about them.

You can wash snails with alum to remove the slimy fluid, although, you would be amazed to learn that there are people in Nigeria that cooks snails with the slimy fluids, sometimes without even removing the shell.

I am talking about a delicious Ijaw Recipe – Keke Fieye

Parboil the goat meat with all the necessary ingredients, I would use two cubes of knorr, a pinch of salt, half cup of onions and half sachet of kitchen glory (beef seasoning). I made this soup with afo anu (goat belle), it’s usually a combination of goat’s intestine, tripe, liver etc. I also added few slice of beef.

Parboil the meat for about twenty to forty minutes… until it is soft enough for consumption then you can go ahead and add the hot-water-washed dry fish. This could be added earlier if you are using a strong dry fish like mangala. Add about 3 cups of cold or boiled water.

The amount of water for nsala soup depends on the ingredients/thickener available and the number of people that you are trying to feed.

Boil the combination for another ten to twenty minutes until they are both soft for consumption then go ahead and add the ground crayfish, uziza seed and ground red pepper (pls taste before adding red pepper, the uziza seeds are also very pepperish).

Taste your soup at this time and add the remaining half of kitchen glory or a cube of knorr/salt to improve the taste if it doesn’t taste nice yet.

You can go ahead and add the pounded yam, you can add half and watch the soup for the next five minutes, if it is not thick enough you can add a little more; I just don’t like the soup to be very thick. I like a very light nsala soup, it tastes better that way.

You can now go ahead and add the sliced uziza and utazi leaves. The utazi should be used sparingly for white soup; the reason is just to add a faint bitter taste.

Allow for the next few minutes and you can go ahead and serve your delicious ofe nsala with pounded yam, fufu or eba.

Making Nigerian Egusi Soup

Egusi soup is unarguably the most popular Nigerian soup, learn to make two of the most popular recipes for (ofe egusi) in Nigeria, you will also learn about all the ingredients used in making them.

Like I stated on the introductory page; Egusi (melon) soup is the most popular of all Nigerian soup. On this page I also included a video on making this delicious recipe and then a list of some other Nigerian soups that are in the same category.

There are two different Egusi Soup recipes that I know about, I will write about the most popular recipe and then the second would follow somewhere down the page.

What you find below is a delicious plate of egusi soup, served with fufu or semovita,

Ingredients Includes

Some are required while very few are optional.

Meat of choice 2kg (beef, chicken turkey, goat meat, or assorted meat)
Assorted meat is a combination of different parts of a cow

4 cups of egusi (melon)
Dry fish (about two medium sizes)
1 cup of ground crayfish
1 cup of Ground Osu (optional)
a good quantity of washed bitterlaef (see the video below)
3 cubes of knorr, maggi or other natural sweetener
15 to 20cl of palm oil
About 2 liters of water
Salt and pepper to taste.
One medium size Stock fish head (okporoko) (optional)
Ogiri or dawadawa or opkei (local ingredients) optional

Grind the four cups of egusi with a dry blender or hand grinding machine and set aside in a bowl. Add about  a cup of water to it and stir to make a very thick paste (this is properly illustrated in the video below)

Be sure that the bitterleaf (onugbu) is properly washed, it is advisable to remove over 95 percent of the bitter taste, this process in known to most Nigerians, it involves washing and squeezing the bitter leaves for several minutes in a very big bowl.

If you bought the already-washed bitterlaef from the market it is advisable to boil alone for about ten minutes, this would further remove the  bitter taste and serve other purposes.

Parboil the meat of your choice with all the necessary ingredients, it is advisable to parboil meat with some ingredient before adding to the main food, this improves the taste of the meat. Parboil for about ten minutes, then add water and cook till the meat is soft for consumption.

Soak the dry fish and stock fish in a bowl with hot water and wash thoroughly to remove sand and center bone, then set aside.

Here is the actual making of Nigerian egusi soup with bitterleaf.

Set your cooking pot on fire and add about 15 to 20cl of  palm oil (red oil), allow to heat for a few minutes but don’t allow to bleach. Add the egusi paste and keep stirring for the next eight to ten minutes to form seed-like crumbs.

Then transfer the already cooked meat into the pot, stir, add the washed dry fish, stock fish, ground crayfish, 2 cubes of maggi or knorr then cover half way and allow to boil for the next ten to fifteen minutes.

Stir occasionally to avoid burning.

At this point you can add about a tea spoon of ground ofor or achi if the soup is not thick enough.

Add the already washed bitter leaves, dawadawa (local ingredients), taste for salt and pepper. Allow to boils for five to ten minutes and you just made a delicious egusi soup.

Nigerian egusi soup could be eaten with rice, but most especially eba and fufu.

I also enjoy eating this soup and pounded yam together.

Note: This soup can also be made with fluted pumpkin, the same process should be followed the only different is that bitter leaves should be replaced with fluted pumpkin leaves

The second egusi soup recipe is very simple to make. You can still follow the same process outlined above. Parboil the meat; add the dry fish, stock fish once it is soft for consumption. Also add the palm oil, 2 cubes of maggi, salt and pepper, dawadawa or okpei. Then add the ground egusi (here there is absolutely no reason to add water or make into paste)
The only different between the two recipes is that the egusi is fried at the beginning in the recipe above while it is added at the end here.

A combination of Ofe Egusi & Pounded Yam would be perfect for launch