Storing and reheating Nigerian food

Nigerian food is built for keeping. Palm oil, long cooking and heavy seasoning all work in your favour, and most soups are genuinely better on the second day once the flavours have settled into each other.

But each component wants something different from you.

Cool it properly first

The single most common mistake is putting a hot pot straight into the fridge. It warms everything around it and the middle of the pot stays in the danger zone for hours.

Decant into shallow containers, leave the lid off until the steam stops, and refrigerate within two hours of cooking. In an Alberta winter you can speed this up on a cold counter, but do not leave food out overnight, which people do and should not.

Soup

Fridge: three to four days in an airtight container below 4°C. Soups heavy in palm oil and well seasoned sit at the better end of that. You will see the palm oil solidify into an orange layer on top; this is normal and it melts back in.

Freezer: up to three months. Freeze in meal-sized portions rather than one large block, because you will not want to defrost the whole thing to eat once.

Reheating: in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it is properly hot through and not just hot on top. Add a splash of water if it has tightened. Bring it to a simmer rather than a gentle warm — this matters for food safety, and soup with meat in it should be steaming, not lukewarm.

Microwaving works for a single portion. Cover it, stop halfway and stir, because soup heats very unevenly and the middle will lie to you.

Ogbono and okra lose some of their draw on reheating. Nothing fixes that entirely. Reheat them gently and briefly to keep as much as you can.

Swallow

This is where most people go wrong. Never microwave pounded yam dry. It turns hard, grainy and unpleasant, and no amount of further heating brings it back.

Two methods that work:

• Steaming. The best option. Wrap in cling film or foil and steam for five to eight minutes. It comes back almost exactly as it was.
• Microwave, properly. Sprinkle over a tablespoon of water, cover, and heat in thirty-second bursts, kneading the ball between each one. Three bursts is usually enough.

Swallow keeps two to three days in the fridge, tightly wrapped so it does not dry out. It freezes acceptably for a month, though pounded yam suffers more than eba does.

Rice

Rice deserves a little extra care. Cooked rice can carry Bacillus cereus spores that survive cooking and multiply if rice sits at room temperature, so the rule is simple: cool it fast and refrigerate it within an hour.

Fridge: up to three days. Freezer: up to three months, frozen flat in a bag so it defrosts quickly.

Reheating jollof: a tablespoon of water, a lid, medium heat. You want to steam it rather than fry it. In a microwave, cover it and stir halfway. Reheat rice once only — do not cool and reheat the same portion repeatedly.

Jollof reheated this way is, in the opinion of most of this kitchen, better than jollof fresh. The smoke settles.

Grilled and fried things

Suya, peppered chicken, fried fish and plantain all go soft in the fridge and all come back in dry heat.

• Oven or air fryer at 180°C for six to ten minutes. This is the right answer for all of them.
• Frying pan, no oil, medium heat, turning once. Works well for suya.
• Microwave makes them soggy. Use it only if you have no choice.

Fried plantain is the one thing that genuinely does not reheat well. It is fine, but it is never what it was. Order the amount you will eat.

Bringing a party tray back

A large tray that has been out on a table for a few hours needs judgement rather than a rule. Food that has been sitting at room temperature for more than two hours should be thrown away, not refrigerated. This is not fussiness; a tray of rice and meat is exactly the kind of thing that causes trouble.

If the tray was kept covered and warm, or went back into the fridge promptly:

1. Break it into smaller containers rather than reheating the whole tray.
2. Rice: oven at 160°C, covered with foil, with a few tablespoons of water splashed over, for twenty minutes.
3. Soup: back into a pot on the hob.
4. Protein: oven or air fryer, uncovered, so it crisps again.

Common questions

How long does Nigerian soup keep?

Three to four days refrigerated below 4°C, or up to three months frozen.

How do you reheat pounded yam?

Steam it, or microwave it covered with a splash of water in short bursts, kneading between each. Never heat it dry.

Can you freeze jollof rice?

Yes. Cool it quickly, freeze it flat, and reheat from frozen with a little water under a lid.