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Semovita

Semovita is a traditional Nigerian recipe for a classic accompaniment of cassava meal and white maize flour boiled until it forms a pliable paste/dough that's typically served with soups. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Nigerian version of: Semovita.

prep time

10 minutes

cook time

10 minutes

Total Time:

20 minutes

Serves:

4

Rating:

Tags : Vegetarian RecipesNigeria Recipes

Semovita is actually a brand name of semi-hydrated flour that’s used for making swallow, a type of fufu served with soup. Due to the conflation of semovita with semolina quite a few myths about the origins of semovita have come about. Semolina is made from durum wheat (the same type of wheat used to make couscous and pasta. You can make swallow from semolina, but semovita is not a refined semolina. In fact, semovita is a combination of cassava meal and fine white maize flour (which is why semovita is white). So, after finding out what semovita really is I could start to prepare mine at home and I could give my wife her favourite swallow. This really does mean you can make your own at home and don’t have to use the expensive branded stuff.

Ingredients:

cassava meal
white maize flour

Method:

By the end you need 500g each of the cassava and the maize. This means that you will need a little more of both. First take the cassava meal and blitz in a blender. Pass through a fine-meshed sieve and whatever does not go through blitz in a blender again. You should end up with 500g of fine cassava flour.

Now pass the maize flour through the sieve, once again until you get 500g of fine maize flour. Combine the sifted maize flour with the sifted cassava flour. Your home-made semovita is now ready to be stored (store in an air-tight jar) and prepared.

To prepare, add 500 ml of water to a handy pot and place it on the stove. Wait until it begins to boil. Now add a cup of semovita into the cold water. Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon. Now pour the cold-mixture into the hot water and continue to stir and boil it for another 2 minutes. Continue stirring until the consistency becomes tough and elastic without any lumps left. It should be smooth and pleasant-looking.

The semovita should come away from the sides of the pan and you should be able to shape into serving-sized balls.