How To Prepare Abacha (African Salad)

Abacha food is the popular Nigerian salad made with dried shredded cassava and Ugba (fermented oil beans), this is a very common food among the Igbos in Nigeria. There are many ways to make abacha, you can combine all the ingredients in one pot to mix or serve them in separate bowls and scoop as you need.

Abacha is prepared with so many vegetables and fish, the more ingredients you add to it, the tastier it becomes. This is very easy to prepare and it can be enjoyed as a main meal, appetizer or as a side dish. You can customize the ingredients to your taste. See the steps below on how to prepare Abacha and also watch the above video too.

Abacha Ingredients

• 1 cup palm oil
• 3 handful abacha or as needed
• 1 cup of ugba/Ukpaka (oil bean seeds)
• 1 medium sized smoked fish/stockfish/dried fish
• 1 medium sized pkomo (cow skin)
• 5 pieces of fresh garden eggs
• 2 medium onions, sliced/chopped
• 1-teaspoon of edible potash (kaunwa)
• 3-tablespoons of ground crayfish
• 1-teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• 2 stock cubes, crushed
• 1 teaspoon ground African nutmeg (Ehuru)
• 1 handful utazi
• 1 handful garden egg leaves or lettuce
• Small Iru or Ogiri (locust beans), optional
• A pinch of salt

How to Prepare Nigerian Abacha

1. Rinse and season kpomo and cook until tender, cut into smaller sizes and set aside.
2. Wash and shred utazi and garden egg leaves and set aside, chop onion into nice rings and the other into tiny pieces.
3. Add water to the potash to dissolve it, strain to get rid of sand and the last particles.
4. Bring abacha into a bowl and add cold water to soak it for 5 minutes, rinse from the water into a bowl, add hot water into it and drain
immediately in a colander and set aside.
5. Add palm oil into a wide pot, add the potash water a little at a time and stir until the oil curdles and changes to bright yellow color.
6. Once you have achieved a very nice creamy texture of oil, season it oil with ground crayfish, pepper, stock cubes, Ehuru (nutmeg) and stir
well.
7. Add the chopped onions, Ukpaka (oil bean seeds) and diced garden eggs and stir to incorporate.
8. Bring the drained abacha and stir in, add the cooked kpomo, dried fish if using that and stir well.
9. Garnish abacha with Utazi and stir. If you like it warm, place it on heat for 30 seconds.
10. Garnish abacha with garden egg leaves, few rings of onion and enjoy as a side dish. Bon Appétit.