Diverse Meal Ideas Vol IV – Chips mayai, Groundnut soup and more

These are the meals I experimented with recently to make my diet more balanced and diverse.

If you’ve been following the series so far, you’ll notice that I have updated the format to highlight what I did to make the meal healthier. And since this isn’t a recipe post, I will only list the ingredients I used and link to recipes instead.

If you are new here, amedi, welcome! I started Diverse Meal Ideas to document my attempt at eating more varied food. Why varied food? Restrictive diets can starve microbiomes (good bacteria) in your gut that your body and brain need to function. I’m not a nutritionist but I was inspired to take a balanced diet seriously after watching this Netflix Documentary on gut health.

The point of my documentation is not to say that you must eat something new every day–that’s hard and expensive to do. Rather, it’s to inspire you to look for ways to add diverse nutrients, especially from vegetables, to your meal. Because food is not just comfort for the heart, but also medicine for the body and mind.

Now that you are acquainted, c’est parti!

Skin-on Chips Mayai and Pico de Gallo

I borrowed from Tanzania and Mexico for this one. It’s basically a potato omelette with a salsa side dish.

In the past, I made chips mayai with regular frozen fries and ate it plain or with ketchup, no veggies. But to get more nutrients out of it, I made some changes:

• Kept the skin on the patates to get more fiber out of them.
• Added pico de gallo for more vegetable nutrients. It helps that the taste profile is similar to ketchup although fresher and chunkier.
• Used one and a half medium-sized potatoes and 2 eggs per portion. I would have preferred to airfry the potatoes, but deep frying isn’t the end of the world, to be honest.

I really liked this one. Even my sister who’s picky with vegetables enjoyed it. It’s filling without being heavy and the flavours are complementary.

Here’s the ingredient list and links to make chips mayai and pico de gallo:

• Irish potatoes (unpeeled)
• Eggs
• A bit of seasoning/salt in eggs and potatoes
• Oil to fry
• Tomatoes
• Red Onion
• Parsley
• Lime juice. I used the sweeter variant. It’s called, ‘Nigerian Lime,’ I believe.
• Chips mayai tutorial
• Pico de gallo tutorial

Stewed apples, rolled oats and Greek yogurt

Rolled oats and Greek yogurt are my go-to breakfast combination. Then I experiment with different toppings for texture and flavour.

This time I tried an apple cinnamon compote, aka stewed apples. It’s fun, delicious and a prebiotic fiber source, thanks to the pectin in apples.

So, we’ve got carbs and fiber from the rolled oats, protein, fat and probiotics from the Greek yogurt, and an overall yummy breakfast.

Here’s the ingredient list and links to make this and my tutorial for homemade Greek yogurt:

• Apple
• Cinnamon
• Honey
• Lemon juice
• Rolled oats. I prefer this for texture.
• Stewed apples/apple compote tutorial
• Homemade Greek yogurt tutorial

Groundnut soup

My meal experiments center on ingredients I have. And this time, I had a tub of pure peanut butter with no added sugar and preservatives, so it seemed perfect for groundnut soup. If you like Nigerian soups with thick and rich flavours like afia efere, oha, onugbu or banga, you’d love this.

Although it’s common to make groundnut soup without leafy veggies, I added bitterleaf for more nutrients. I also used fish and meat, in addition to the peanut butter, for protein. But I skipped palm oil because PB is already fatty.

And then I paired it with a nice small portion of semo as the main carb. Starch would have been perfect, but making it ended in disappointment.

It’s so delicious. The PB adds more depth and a slight sweetness that complements the mild bitterness from the vegetable. It has even made me consider ditching cocoyam for peanut butter in ofe onugbu.

Here’s the ingredient list and links to make groundnut soup:

• Roasted groundnut or Ivan’s Peanut Butter
• Yellow pepper (Ose Nsukka)
• Crayfish
• Dry fish
• Goat meat (any meat works)
• Ehuru
• Uziza
• Bitterleaf, squeeze-washed to get rid of acridity
• Salt
• Seasoning cubes, if you prefer
• Groundnut soup tutorial
• Starch tutorial, if you dare

Whole wheat quesadilla with avocado, egg and chicken filling

This one is easy because it was “cut and join.” I had some whole wheat tortilla, which I got for– you guessed it–more fiber. I had some avocado as well,  so I mixed that with some boiled eggs and shredded chicken to make this. It’s not mind blowing but it works. You’ve got your complex carb, healthy fat and protein. No leafy greens, but nobody died. Hehe.

Here’s the ingredient list

• Whole wheat tortilla
• Avocado
• Boiled eggs
• Shredded chicken(optional)
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Dash of lemon juice