Fish stew! This simple and delicious West African stew recipe is packed full of flavour and uses a handful of everyday ingredients you may already have in your pantry. This easy Nigerian fish stew is versatile and can be served with boiled white rice or paired with vegetable soups like efo riro to accompany Nigerian swallow.
Let me show you how to make it in steps.
Easy Nigerian fish stew recipe
This is another popular type of stew that you can find in every Nigerian home it is similar to this Nigerian beef stew and they use similar ingredients too.
Every West African stew recipe starts with a common pepper mix which consists of red bell pepper, tomatoes, onions, and scotch bonnet chilli. Some even take it further and add other types of pepper to their mix. This pepper mix is typically cooked in palm, vegetable or groundnut oil until fried.
Some also prefer it more fluidly like the consistency you get with Buka stew. For my Nigerian stew, I am using red bream also known as red headless. This fish is so delicious and holds its shape when cooked and doesn’t taste too fishy.
The other types of fish you may use or that are popularly used in African fish stew includes croaker fish, Hake fish, Mackerel know as Titus fish in Nigeria. You can also use Tilapia fish but I prefer to fry it except I am making imooyo.
I grilled the fish used for today’s recipe to keep it healthy but you may choose to fry it if you desire.
Related post: If you would rather use fresh fish for this recipe, follow the steps used in this mackerel stew recipe and substitute the palm oil for vegetable oil
Ingredients you will need
Fish steaks: I am using red headless but you can use hake, mackerel or croaker fish.
Pepper mix: which consists of red bell peppers known as tatashe, onion, tomato and scotch bonnet (ata rodo)
Salt to taste
Vegetable oil: swap with palm oil or groundnut oil
Chicken bouillon powder: substitute with any stock cube of choice
Fish marinade used
Garlic granules
Ginger powder
Dried parsley
How to make Nigerian fish stew | African Fish stew
Prep the fish: de-scale fish and cut into steak, add to a bowl and rinse with water and lemon juice. Then transfer the fish to a colander to drain excess moisture.
Marinate the fish: add garlic granules, onion powder, ginger powder, parsley and 1 teaspoon of bouillon powder to the fish and mix to combine. Cover it with a cling film and marinate for at least 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, grill the fish for a total of 20 minutes, 10 minutes on each side
While waiting for the fish to finish grilling or frying, blend the peppers and bring to boil on medium heat for about 10 minutes.
Cook the stew: place a pan on medium heat, add vegetable oil and heat until hot. Add chopped onions and stir fry until translucent. Then carefully add the boiled pepper to the oil and bring to boil for about 10 minutes.
Season the stew with salt and bouillon powder to taste, stir to combine and continue to cook for another 10 minutes or until you can see the oil floating on top of the stew.
Add the grilled fish to the stew and carefully mix to combine. Shred fresh basil or scent leaves to the stew and cover the pan with its lid. Continue to cook on low heat for another 5 minutes. Take it off the heat and serve immediately.
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How to serve this easy Nigerian fish stew
I love to serve this grilled fish stew with plain okra soup, with coconut fried rice or rice and beans.
How to store
You can store this stew in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
In the freezer: what is a Nigerian home without some sort of stew in the freezer. Haha, this stew would keep in the fridge for up to 3 months. Leave to defrost overnight.
Other Nigerian recipes you may love
Finally, as always lovelies, if you make this suya chicken wings recipe. Please leave a comment for me. Also, pin this recipe on Pinterest or tag me your beautiful yummy image on Instagram.
See you on my next post
All the best x
Nigerian Fish Stew Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 kg fish steaks: I am using red headless but you can use hake mackerel or croaker fish.
- 2 large red bell pepper mix:
- 1 canned chopped tomatoes substitute with 6 medium Roma tomatoes
- 1 Scotch bonnet chilli
- 2 medium onion reserve ¼ of 1 onion for later
- Salt to taste
- 1 cup vegetable oil: swap with palm oil or groundnut oil
- 1 ½ tablespoon chicken bouillon powder: substitute with any stock cube of choice
Fish marinade
- 1 teaspoon garlic granules
- 1 teaspoon ginger powder
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
Instructions
- Prep the fish: de-scale fish and cut into steaks, add to a bowl and rinse with water and lemon juice. Then transfer the fish to a colander to drain excess moisture.
- Marinate the fish: add garlic granules, onion powder, ginger powder, parsley and 1 teaspoon of bouillon powder to the fish and mix to combine. Cover it with a cling film and marinate for at least 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, grill the fish for a total of 20 minutes, 10 minutes on each side
- While waiting for the fish to finish grilling or frying, blend the peppers and bring to boil on medium heat for about 10 minutes.
- Cook the stew: place a pan on medium heat, add vegetable oil and heat until hot. Add chopped onions and stir fry until translucent. Then carefully add the boiled pepper to the oil and bring to boil for about 10 minutes.
- Season the stew with salt and bouillon powder to taste, stir to combine and continue to cook for another 10 minutes or until you can see the oil floating on top of the stew.
- Add the grilled fish to the stew and carefully mix to combine. Shred fresh basil or scent leaves to the stew and cover the pan with its lid. Continue to cook on low heat for another 5 minutes. Take it off the heat and serve immediately.
DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE? PLEASE RATE IT AND LEAVE ME A COMMENT. USE #MYACTIVEKITCHEN OR TAG @MYACTIVEKITCHEN ON INSTAGRAM SO I CAN SEE YOUR PHOTOS, I WOULD LOVE TO SEE YOUR CREATIONS. THANK YOU!
Very easy and tasty stew...I made it with coley steaks and king prawns...however can I point out you don't mention the tomatoes in the instructions...I figured it out...however wasn't sure if they needed to be blended with the Peppers or not...also what do we do with the remaining onion...we had to put on the side for latter
I made this today and I'm so happy with the turn out
Prefect and definitely 5 stars for me.
I couldn’t stop stealing samples of the sauce once it was finished😁
OMG!!!!?
Thank you for this mouthwatering recipe. I was afraid of using the ginger since I’m just beginning to learn how to cook with it. However, this sauce is my fav of any stew recipe and I wonder if I can use it for making other meat stews with lamb, beef or chicken.
I did use palm oil because I wanted the authentic taste of Nigerian cooking.
Also, I used Salmon which is one of my fav choices for fish. It was perfect.
I love salmon too, thank you for your feedback, I am glad you enjoyed it. Yes, you can use ginger in making meat/poultry stew or boil your meat.
Can you use canned/smoked fish for this. Unfortunately these fish aren't readily available where i live. Im going to try with halibut chunks and was thinking of adding the canned mackeral.
Hi KJ, canned mackerel would work but you have to be careful so it doesn't break into the soup.