Principal Dishes

A Yoruba meal is built from two parts eaten together: a dense starchy morsel called òkèlè, swallowed rather than chewed, and a soup or stew, ọbẹ̀, that carries the flavor, the protein, and the lubrication needed to swallow it 1. This file is about the dishes themselves, what they are made of, how they differ by region, and what social occasions call for which one. The crop base and farming institutions behind these dishes are covered in Staples and the Agricultural Base (slug: staples-and-agricultural-base); the kitchen equipment, cooking mechanics, and fermentation science that produce them are covered in The Yoruba Kitchen (slug: the-yoruba-kitchen); yam's ritual centrality, the New Yam Festival, palm oil's wider economic history, and food taboos (eewọ̀) are covered in Food (slug: social-food). None of that ground is repeated here.

Òkèlè: the swallows

Òkèlè (from ò- + kó + ilé, roughly "that which is gathered into a lump") names the category of dense, elastic starch pastes eaten by tearing off a small piece with the fingers, pressing a shallow well into it with the thumb, using it to scoop soup, and swallowing with little or no chewing 1. The four principal swallows differ in raw material and in the region that claims each as its own.

Ìyán (pounded yam)

Ìyán is boiled yam pounded to a smooth, stretchy, lump-free mass in a wooden mortar (odó) with a pestle (ọmọ odó); the mechanics of the pounding are covered in the-yoruba-kitchen. It holds the highest prestige of any swallow in Yoruba society, is the food most associated with hospitality and abundance, and is prepared for the most significant occasions 1, 2. It is made from mature Dioscorea rotundata (white guinea yam).

Ìyán's regional home is the eastern forest belt: Èkìtì, Ìjẹ̀ṣà, Òndó, and Ọ̀wọ̀, where high rainfall supports large yam tubers and pounded yam, eaten daily, is the household's defining food rather than an occasional one 3, 4. social-food treats yam's wider ritual standing and the New Yam Festival; this file is concerned with ìyán specifically as a dish.

Àmàlà (yam, cassava, or plantain flour paste)

Àmàlà is made by stirring dried, milled flour into boiling water and beating out the lumps with a flat wooden spatula (orógun) until the paste turns smooth and elastic 1. Three distinct versions exist, distinguished by raw material:

Àmàlà iṣu uses èlùbọ́ iṣu, yam flour made by peeling and parboiling yam, steeping it in water for several days, and sun-drying it; enzymatic browning during the process gives the flour, and the finished dish, its characteristic dark brown to near-black color. This is the version most strongly identified with Ọ̀yọ́, Ìbàdàn, Ògbómọ̀ṣọ́, and Ọ̀fà 3, 4.

Àmàlà láfún uses fermented, dried cassava flour: cassava is soaked for several days to soften and ferment, pressed, crumbled, dried, and milled into a pale off-white flour that produces a lighter, slightly tangy paste. It is associated with Ẹ̀gbá (Abẹ́òkúta) and parts of Ọ̀yọ́ territory 3.

Àmàlà ọ̀gẹ̀dẹ̀ is made from dried, milled unripe plantain, producing a denser, brownish paste.

Ẹ̀bà (gàrí mash)

Ẹ̀bà is made by scattering gàrí, fermented and roasted cassava granules, over boiling water and turning it vigorously into a firm dough 1. It is the cheapest and most widely eaten of the swallows across Yorubaland by volume 5. Gàrí Ìjẹ̀bú, roasted after a longer, more pronounced fermentation of several days, yields a distinctly sour, tart ẹ̀bà prized across the southern Yoruba region and is treated as gàrí's own local signature product 3, 5.

Fùfú (fermented wet cassava mash)

Fùfú is prepared from cassava soaked in water for several days until softened by bacterial fermentation, then sieved free of fiber and cooked down into a dense, silky, sour-smelling paste 1. It is associated with Ẹ̀gbá, Àwórì, and lagoonside communities 3.

Ọbẹ̀: soups and stews

The classic pairing sets a "draw" soup, thickened and slippery, which lubricates the morsel going down, against a pepper-based stew that supplies the meat, fish, and heat 1. the-yoruba-kitchen covers fermentation biochemistry and palm oil processing that underlie these dishes; this section covers the finished soups.

Ẹ̀fọ́ rírò (stirred leaf vegetable soup)

Ẹ̀fọ́ rírò, "stirred greens," sautés indigenous leaf vegetables in a coarse pepper base seasoned with dried fish, cow skin (pọ̀nmọ́), fermented locust bean (irú), and crayfish 1. Leaves in common use include ṣọkọ yòkòtò (Lagos spinach, Celosia argentea), tẹ́tẹ́ (African amaranth), gbòrò (Malabar spinach, Basella alba), and ọ̀dúndún (Kalanchoe crenata), a cool, slightly sour leaf used in both cooking and ritual contexts.

Ewédú (jute mallow draw soup)

Fresh jute mallow leaves (Corchorus olitorius) are simmered briefly with a pinch of potash (kaun), which preserves the color and draws out the leaf's mucilage, then beaten with a stiff whisking broom (ìjàbé) into a viscous green broth seasoned lightly with whole locust bean and crayfish 1.

Gbẹ̀gìrì (cowpea soup)

De-hulled, boiled black-eyed cowpeas are pressed through a sieve to a smooth puree, then simmered with palm oil, locust bean, dried fish, and pepper into a glossy yellow soup 1. Gbẹ̀gìrì is closely identified with Ọ̀yọ́ cuisine 3.

Ilá (okra soup)

Fresh okra pods (Abelmoschus esculentus) are grated or pounded for mucilage and cooked either as an all-in-one preparation with palm oil, locust bean, and protein (ilá alásèpọ̀), or plain with potash as a base meant to be paired with a separate pepper stew (ilá gbígbọ̀). Ilá ògbálọ́, made from dried, powdered okra pods, is a dry-season variant made when fresh pods are scarce.

Ọbẹ̀ ata (pepper stew)

A crushed paste of sweet pepper (tatasé), scotch bonnet (ata ródò), and onion, reduced and fried in palm oil with locust bean, then simmered with beef, tripe, goat, or dried fish until the oil rises and clarifies 1. This is the base red stew that pairs with rice as readily as with any swallow, and it is what public buka dining halls sell by the plate.

The àbùlà triad

In Ọ̀yọ́, Ìbàdàn, Ògbómọ̀ṣọ́, and Ọ̀ṣun, àmàlà iṣu served together with ewédú and gbẹ̀gìrì in one bowl, usually finished with a spoon of ọbẹ̀ ata and braised meat on top, is called àbùlà 3, 6. Àmàlà sits at the base, ewédú is ladled over it, gbẹ̀gìrì goes on next, and the pepper stew and meat go on top, so the bowl arrives layered green over yellow with red at the crown before the diner mixes it. Àbùlà is specifically an urban buka dish, the standard order at the roadside eating houses (bùkà) of Ọ̀yọ́-region towns, rather than a formal home-cooking combination, and its popularity is inseparable from the growth of those public eating houses in the twentieth century 3.

Legume dishes

Cowpeas (ẹ̀wà) are the primary legume protein source and are prepared as whole boiled beans, fried fritters, or steamed puddings 1.

Mọ́ínmọ́ín and ọ̀lẹ̀lẹ̀ (steamed bean puddings)

De-hulled cowpeas are milled with fresh pepper and onion, aerated, mixed with oil and seasoning, and steamed in parcels of Thaumatococcus daniellii leaf (ewé ẹran) or banana leaf 1. Ọ̀lẹ̀lẹ̀ is largely a dialectal and regional name for the same dish in Ẹ̀gbá, Ìjẹ̀bú, and other western communities, sometimes denoting a softer, more heavily seasoned version.

Èkuru (plain white bean cake)

The same de-hulled cowpea base, ground and aerated but without oil, pepper, or tomato, steamed to a pale, crumbly, dry cake, eaten with a separate fried pepper sauce 1. Èkuru's plainness, its whiteness and its lack of oil or pepper, is why it functions as an offering food to Ọbàtálá and the other òrìṣà funfun, the white deities whose worship keeps to unseasoned, unreddened food and abstains from palm oil, palm wine, and salt (confidence: medium; the ẹ̀kuru-Ọbàtálá pairing is widely reported in accounts of Yoruba ritual food but this file was unable to confirm it against a single scholarly source discussing food offerings specifically, and it is presented here as consistent with, rather than directly documented by, Ọbàtálá's independently sourced white-food and palm-wine-abstention profile) 7.

Àkàrà (deep-fried bean fritters)

The same cowpea batter, whisked to trap air and folded with chopped onion and chili, fried by the spoonful in hot palm or groundnut oil until the outside crisps gold and the inside stays light and moist 1. Àkàrà is an everyday breakfast food, eaten with fermented maize gruel (ògì) or bread, and it is also prepared in bulk for funeral commemorations of elders who died at an advanced age, distributed to mourners and neighbors 1, 2.

Ẹ̀wà (stewed beans) and ẹ̀wà àgànyìn

Whole cowpeas simmered until tender and finished with palm oil and onion (ẹ̀wà rírò), or combined with sweet maize into the mixed pottage adàlù.

Ẹ̀wà àgànyìn, mashed cowpeas topped with a dark, caramelized chili-and-crayfish sauce slow-fried in palm oil, takes its name from the Agoyin (Aganyin) people of the Togo-Bénin coastal borderlands, whose cooks are widely credited with introducing the dish to Lagos, where it spread through the 1980s and became one of the city's defining street foods, popular enough to have crossed class lines in a city where food often marks them (confidence: medium; the Agoyin-migrant origin and the dish's rise in Lagos street food culture in this period are reported consistently across food-history accounts, though this file has not located a peer-reviewed source giving a precise date or route of transmission) 8.

Tuber pottages: àsáró and ìkókórè

Pottages cook tuber, aromatics, and protein down together into a single thick broth, eaten without a separate swallow 1.

Àsáró boils cubed white guinea yam in a seasoned base of pepper, onion, locust bean, dried fish, and palm oil, with part of the yam broken down against the pot to thicken the liquid into a creamy orange sauce while whole chunks remain.

Ìkókórè (ifókóre in some sub-dialects) grates water yam (Dioscorea alata) to a wet pulp, seasons it, and drops it by the spoonful into a boiling seafood-and-pepper broth, where it coagulates into glossy dumplings suspended in the gravy. It is the signature dish of the Ìjẹ̀bú and Rẹ́mọ areas 3, and is treated in social-food's regional survey as one of the clearest single-dish markers of Ìjẹ̀bú culinary identity.

Regional identity in the dishes

Regional food preference in Yorubaland functions as a marker of origin, joked about and pointed to accordingly 9. The pattern that emerges from the dishes above:

Ọ̀yọ́ and Ìbàdàn: àmàlà iṣu and the àbùlà triad, gbẹ̀gìrì, and cowpea dishes generally, reflecting a longer dry season suited to drying yam flour and growing beans 3, 4.

Èkìtì and Ìjẹ̀ṣà: pounded yam as a daily rather than occasional food, supported by heavier rainfall and larger yam yields, paired with ẹ̀fọ́ rírò and egúsí 3, 4.

Ìjẹ̀bú and Rẹ́mọ: ìkókórè, gàrí Ìjẹ̀bú, and seafood-forward soups, reflecting coastal and lagoon access 3, 5.

Ẹ̀gbá (Abẹ́òkúta): àmàlà láfún, fùfú, and ọ̀lẹ̀lẹ̀.

A note on a quoted proverb

An earlier draft of this file quoted a four-line proverb, "Ìyán loúnjẹ, Àmàlà loògùn, Àìrí rárá là ńjẹ̀kọ, Kẹ́nu má bàá dákẹ́ là ńjẹ̀bà," attributed to Oyekan Owomoyela's Yoruba Proverbs (2005), p. 312, translated as ranking pounded yam as true food, àmàlà as mere medicine, ẹ̀kọ as what one eats only when there is nothing else, and ẹ̀bà as what one eats only to keep the mouth from going silent.

A search of the digitized text of Owomoyela's 2005 collection found no proverb combining these four foods in this form, and no proverb at page 312 or elsewhere matching this wording (a sibling file in this section, staples-and-agricultural-base, independently full-text-searched the same book for a different quoted proverb and reached the same conclusion about its reliability for invented composite texts). What the record does support, independently, is the substance in pieces. A short, widely circulated two-line proverb, "Iyán l'oúnjẹ, ọ̀kà l'oògùn" (pounded yam is food, àmàlà is medicine), makes exactly the first comparison and is documented in general Yoruba proverb commentary, including a discussion by a Pan-Atlantic University linguist describing it as a proverb spoken jokingly once diners are already full, precisely to rank ìyán above àmàlà 10. A second, separate proverb, recorded in general Yoruba proverb compilations as "Àìrí rárá l'a ń j'ẹ̀kọ, k'ẹnu má d'ilé ni ti gúgúrú" (it is finding nothing at all that makes one eat ẹ̀kọ, so as not to let the mouth go idle, the same goes for popcorn), supplies the substance of the draft's third line, but pairs ẹ̀kọ with popcorn (gúgúrú), not with ẹ̀bà 11. No source located pairs ẹ̀bà with this construction at all.

The most likely explanation is that the draft's four-line version is a composite spliced from at least two genuine, separately circulating proverbs, extended with an invented fourth clause about ẹ̀bà, and presented as a single quotation from a specific page of a specific book. Per this corpus's verification protocol, the underlying claim, that Yoruba proverb tradition ranks ìyán above àmàlà and treats ẹ̀kọ as a food of scarcity, is real and retained above under 10 and 11. The four-line quotation itself, and the page 312 attribution to Owomoyela, could not be substantiated anywhere and has been cut rather than repeated under an unverifiable citation. For the wider genre and how proverbs behave inside performance, see yoruba-owe-in-performance; for proverbs specifically on hunger and food, see owe-hunger-food-plenty, which documents entry 4, on an Ìjẹ̀ṣà person renaming rather than refusing Ọ̀yọ́ corn loaf under hunger, and entry 56, on eating ẹ̀kọ with àkàrà as the mark of a sheltered palate, both drawn directly from Owomoyela's digitized proverb text.