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Cooking
recipe for Nshima
A
healthy way to try an African dish
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By Imfwama Wotela
In Africa, we have special dishes for various occasions. It is the duty of every parent to teach their children, especially the daughters how to prepare all the staple food so that when she gets married or goes to visit or live with a relative she will not embarrass them but bring honor to her family. In this article, we will focus on Zambian dishes. This country is located in the Central Southern part of Africa and has 9 provinces and 72 tribes all living in harmony. Each province or tribe has at least one unique dish that another tribe does not have. |
 Nshima (Maize meal or mealie meal) is the main staple food for every Zambian. It is prepared from maize or cassava. A home without Nshima is considered a home without food even if they have everything else including rice,
potatoes etc. Every man when he gets home looks forward to eating hot Nshima prepared by his wife, maid or mother. If he is single, he will prepare it himself. Yes, even men know how to cook
Nshima. Nshima is the general name but it is called by different names depending on the tribe.
There are various types of mealie meal that are used to prepare
Nshima, namely:
1) Purified White Mealie/Maize Meal
2) Yellow mealie (from yellow maize)
3) Roller mealie (unpurified)
4) Cassava meal
The favorite meal is the white maize meal, which has little nutrients in it but is smooth to the taste and is priced higher than all the other brands. The most nutritious is roller meal as it is just maize that has been grounded without removing anything from it. It has a dull grayish color, very filling and cheap. The taste is OK and I would grade it under C.
Cassava is mainly grown in the North Western province and the meal from it is not so popular and is not readily available from the shops. People prefer to eat the cassava tubers instead. It is advisable to mix the cassava powder with maize meal as it has been known to stain the teeth.
Related articles: Complete
process and ingredients for cooking Nshima the healthy
way
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