Ẹ̀bà (in Nigeria) or Pinon (in Togo, Benin, and southern Ghana) is a

staple food A staple food, food staple, or simply a staple, is a food that is eaten often and in such quantities that it constitutes a dominant portion of a standard diet for a given person or group of people, supplying a large fraction of energy needs and ...

mainly eaten in the West African sub-region and other African countries. The term èbà originates from the

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

people of southwest Nigeria. It is a cooked starchy vegetable food made from dried grated cassava (manioc) flour commonly known as ''

garri In West Africa, ''garri (also known as gari, galli'', or ''gali)'' is the flour of the fresh starchy cassava root. In the Hausa language, ''garri'' can also refer to the flour of guinea corn, maize, rice, yam, plantain and millet. For ...

.'' It is often eaten with rich soups and stews, with beef, stockfish or mutton. The dish is often described as having a slightly sour, sharp taste. Èbà is eaten with the fingers, rolled into a small ball, and dipped into ọbẹ̀ (a thick soup) such as okra soup, bitter leaf ( ewúro) soup or pepper soup (''ọbẹ̀ ata'' or ''ẹ̀fọ́'' depending on dialect) with either

okro Okra or Okro (, ), ''Abelmoschus esculentus'', known in many English-speaking countries as ladies' fingers or ochro, is a flowering plant in the mallow family. It has edible green seed pods. The geographical origin of okra is disputed, with sup ...

, ọgbọnọ ( Igbo)/ apọn ( Yorùbá), or ewédú, meat or fish,

stew A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. A stew needs to have raw ingredients added to the gravy. Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables and ...

ed vegetables or other sauces such as '' gbẹ̀gìrì'', Amiedi (banga soup) or egusi soup.

Preparation

Blended

flour is mixed into hot water and stirred thoroughly and vigorously with a wooden spatula until it becomes a firm dough that can be rolled into a ball. It can be made with different types of garri. Depending on the type of garri flour used, Ẹ̀bà can vary in colour, from deep yellow to off white.

Palm oil Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 33% of global oils produced from ...

is often added to the garri during preparation, resulting in a bright yellow colour.

Nutrition

Eba is rich in starch and

carbohydrates In organic chemistry, a carbohydrate () is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 (as in water) and thus with the empirical formula (where ''m'' may or may ...

. Eba has a gross energy content of 381.5 kcal which is higher than other cassava products like fufu and lafun with 180 kcal and 357.7 respectively. However, it has a crude protein content of 0.9g/100g, slightly lower than fufu and lafun with 1.0g/100g and 1.1g/100g respectively.

References

External links

* * * Cassava dishes Ghanaian cuisine Nigerian cuisine Swallows (food) Yoruba cuisine {{Nigeria-cuisine-stub

Preparation

Nutrition

See also

References

External links