Colocasia esculenta popularly know as Coco yam is a common vegetable root crop that is grown in the southern part of Nigeria. It can be roasted and eaten with stew or red palm oil, porridge Coco yam is equally a delight. On one of my visits to Crawford University Igbesa, South West Nigeria. I observed that they fry it and eat as snack, while in the eastern part of Nigeria it is sometimes boiled and pounded into dough to be accompanied with soup as full-scale “swallow” meal. Is also, a principal ingredient used as thickener in preparing soups like “ofe uha” Ofe olugbu” Ofe Akwu” etc.
Coco yam comes in varieties from the tiger coco yam, to white coco yam etc. beyond the root, the coco yam leaves serve as vegetable, a Ghanaian friend introduced me to it. In the traditional Igbo setting, coco yam leaves are used in wrapping food items and vegetables even in marketplaces before the prevalence of nylon came to be.
On my trip from Owerri to Ibadan I stopped at the gate of CRIN (Cocoa Research Institute Nigeria) to buy a bucket of coco yam. I was made to understand that coco yam grows well under Cocoa tree shed. This is what I made of the coco yam.
Cocoyam is common in the South West of Nigeria as well. We eat it cooked with palm oil or roasted as @TravellerG has mentioned. Also fried like you mentioned.
We also pound it( pounded Cocoyam) and eat it with any soup just like garri.
You mentioned Ghana, they eat the leaves as vegetables called “Kotombre” it’s an interesting post thanks for sharing. So nice to see you at the meet-up on Saturday after a long time!
Cocoyam is a darling for mothers in the south east. Most soups are prepared with cocoyam because it helps to thicken soups and make them nutritious.
Cocoyam is also eaten when cooked, roasted or fried. There different varieties too.
I love cocoyam when it is roasted and eaten with fresh palm oil with spinach and pepper.
Growing up in Lagos, I loved fried cocoyam and potato chips better than plantain chips. Maybe because plantain chips were common.
Thanks for sharing this tropical root crop. Many of the variety is going extinct in our countrysides a d needs to be continuously cultivated to sustain the species.
I’m so sorry for late respond, I’m trying to looking for video in English but it’s really hard.Here video show how to cooking but in bahasa https://youtu.be/J8FcIlaqSog
