Welcome to GoodFoodAfrica Some links on this page are affiliate links which means that, if you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Fufu (foofoo, foufou, fufuo) [/fu,fu/ or /foofoo/] is a starchy African food that is obtained by cooking fermented food from the cassava tuber.
There are also other variations of the fufu, like yam fufu and plantain fufu. This is so named by the crop used for it’s production. You might stumble on other varieties, but often these are called by other names in other regions of the continent. We’ll come to this later.
While more popular in Africa, it can also be found in other tropical regions like the Caribbean.
It falls under a family of African food that is called swallow. So called due to how it is eaten, which by rolling into a small lump or ball, dipped in a soup and then swallowed (try fufu and okra soup and thank later). Unlike chewable food like rice and spaghetti, fufu is seldom chewed, but swallowed as a lump.
It is high in carbohydrate and fibre, and has a filling effect. When eaten, it can fill a person for longer hours compared to other food. In fact, in Nigeria, it is nicknamed “6 to 6” meaning it can fill you from 6am to 6pm. Of course, this is a hyperbole and should not be taken literally.
If you are planning to go to Africa, fufu and any local soup, egusi for example, is a thing to try.
But if you’ve been to Africa and are yet to eat fufu, forget it, you didn’t go to Africa!
Alright! Enough of the hype!
Get ready as I take you to Africa where I’ll introduce you to how this sumptuous African lump is made.
If you’re ready, let’s go
How fufu is made
Fufu is originally made from Cassava. However with time, other similar food made from other products came to also be called by the name, like yam fufu, cassava fufu.
In Nigeria, these two “fufu” are actually calld by other names. I’ll discuss them in a future article.
For simplicity, I’ll be explaining how cassava fufu is made.
This is how:
Making fresh fufu — technique 1
- At maturity, usually cassava plant is cut down, and the root harvested. This root is the actually cassava tuber.
- The cassava tuber is peeled to remove it’s brown outer skin and the sublayer immediately beneath the thin brown skin.
- The white inner flesh is then washed in clean water, and soaked
- The cassava is left in water for 3 -6 days until it is completely soft and fermented.
- (This fermentation process takes shorter times in hot season and longer time in cold season)
- (To faster the process, some add certain things, like ashes, to increase the fermentation process. This is not a common practice though. Whether it is effective and acceptable is highly debated)
- After the fermentation, the soaked cassava tuber is transfered to a bucket of water where it is washed and rinsed.
- It is washed, by squeezing and smashing it in a rubber filter container. This process separates the edible flesh from the tuber’s fiber.
- The flesh washes down through the filter hole, while the flesh remains in the filter.
- The fiber is thrown away as chaff or used to feed farm animals like goat.
- The remaining flesh is then poured into a woven sack of grain, such as an empty bag of rice.
- A heavy object is placed on the bag to cause the water to flow out faster. This is left in place for about 24 hours until most of the water leaks out.
- The result is a lump of damp cassava flesh called, ‘fresh fufu’ or ‘raw fufu’.
- This fufu is ready to be cooked for serving.
Making fresh fufu — technique 2
You see, fresh fufu does not stay long on shelf. It is often preserved by pouring clean water on it which also tends to ferment after two or three days. So traditionally, fresh fufu can not be preserved for more than a week.
This causes some to devise an alternative method to produce fresh fufu that can stay in store for longer, even many months. If you live in Europe or the US, this is the kind of fufu, you’ll likely find.
This is an alternate way to produce fufu:
- At maturity, usually cassava plant is cut down, and the root harvested. This root is the actually cassava tuber.
- The cassava tuber is peeled to remove it’s brown outer skin and the leathery parenchymatous (that is, the thick sublayer immediately beneath the thin brown skin)
- The white inner flesh is then washed in clean water, and soaked.
- The cassava is left in water for 3 -6 days until it is completely soft and fermented.
- (This fermentation process takes shorter times in hot season and longer time in cold season)
- (To faster the process, some add certain things, like ashes, to increase the fermentation process. This is not a common practice though. Whether it is effective and acceptable is highly debated)
- After the fermentation, the soaked cassava tuber is transfered to a bucket of water where it is washed and rinsed.
- It is washed, by squeezing and smashing it in a rubber filter container. This process separates the edible flesh from the tuber’s fiber.
- The pulp washes down through the filter hole, while the flesh remains in the filter.
- The fiber is thrown away as chaff or used to feed farm animals like goat.
- The remaining pulp is then poured into a woven sack of grain, such as an empty bag of rice.
- A heavy object is placed on the bag to cause the water to flow out faster. This is left in place for about 24 hours until most of the water leaks out.
- The resulting damp flesh is then sundried until it is dry and flaky.
- This dry cassava flake is then taken to a grinding machine where it is grounded into powder.
- The grounded powder is then stored in a storage container or sack bag.
- It is also sealed for sales in local markets and for exports.
The final product of this second process is called fufu flour. More on that later.
What is a fufu made of?
Fufu swallow is mainly made from cassava tuber. It also refers to the mash gotten from plaintain and yam tuber. Of course in some parts of Africa, Nigeria for example, mash potato is actually called “pounded yam”. To Nigerians, yam cooked and pounded to a smooth mash is not fufu but pounded yam.
Plantain fufu is generally accepted as fufu just as it’s cassava counterpart.
Other variations of fufu are gotten from corn flour, dried cassava flour, potato, etc. Just like the yam mash, these so-called fufu are identified separately from fufu in many parts of Africa.
Fufu Recipe
Fufu as a food is made by cooking processed cassava or cooked plantain. It is cooked while continually turning it with a turning stick until it is done. Other variations are cooked in a mold and then pounded to form a smooth mash. Fufu as a food is processed as a standalone food without any ingredient or addictives.
Cooked fufu is not sweet and not meant to be eaten alone.It is one half the complete meal called “fufu and soup”. It can be eaten with
- Egusi soup
- Vegetable soup
- Oha soup
- Ogbono (draw soup)
- Okra (draw soup)
- Gbegiri soup
The list is practically endless. In Nigerian there are countless types of soup eaten accross the hundreds of languages and culture in the vastly diverse nation. Other African countries have their favorite soup to accompany the meal and so are the different carribean coultures.
With this understanding, there are three ways to cook fufu.
- The cook-and-turn method
- The pounding method
- The turning method (if you live outside African, this is the method you should probably learn)
Here is an easy step by step guide to making fufu:
The cook-and-turn method
- Add a measure of raw fufu in a wide pot (sticky pot preferable)
- Add a cup of water into the mix
- Mash the bould with both hands, rubbing them between both palms and crushing the many tiny lumps until they form a smooth thick paste (do not make it watery, you can add water later while cooking)
- Place the pot on the a fire source.
- Turn the mixture with a turning stick. It should gradually thickens while changing color from white to light gray.
- Hold one handle of the pot with your weak hand while turning with the stronger hand.
- Your goal is for the whole mix to turn to light gray
- It should get stronger and harder to turn as it cooks.
- Add a little water to get your desired texture.
- When the whold mold has turn grey, it’s done. You can get it off the fire.
- As a litmus test, you should be able to chew the mold without a soup
- It should have a mild neutral test, not the raw, fresh cassava taste the uncook has. (don’t even attempt to taste the fresh cassava it’s quite unpleasant)
- Your fufu is ready to be served with a soup of choice.
- You should have a burnt and sticky remnant at the bottom of the pot. You can loosen this by soaking the empty pot in water for 1 hour or so. Just let it sit until it loosen from the bottom of the pot. This should only take a couple of hours at most.
The pounding method
The pounding method is peculiar to the Igbo tribe in Eastern Nigeria. You might also find it in adjacent tribes to the Igbos. Here is how to prepare fufu with this method:
- Add a measure of raw fufu in a bowl.
- Add a cup of water into the mix
- Mash the bould with both hands, rubbing them between both palms and crushing the many tiny lumps until they form a smooth thick paste (it should be thick, thick enough to be rolled into a ball)
- mold fresh fufu into a ball
- They mold the fresh fufu in to a ball
- Cook the fufu ball untill the outside of the ball turns gray.
- Let is sit for a little more time after this
- Remove the cooked balls and put them into a clean wooden motar
- Pound the balls with a piston to form a smooth strong mold.
- The result is a smooth whitish mold.
- The downside is, it’s usually not thoroughly cooked, as a large part of the fufu is rolled up in the mold, hence preventing heat from getting to it.
- You should still be able to chew the resulting product, but with a little slightly sour taste of raw fufu
- It is also slightly whitish. Not as grey as it’s cook-and-turn counterpart.
The turning method
This is the easiest method of them, but less popular than the other two. It is mainly practiced in Edo and Delta states, both in Southern Nigeria. Of course the earlier two methods are still the conventional methods even in these states.
You can only use the grounded fufu flour for this method.
- Place water in a kettle or pot
- Heat it on fire till boiling pot
- Pour the boiling water into a bowl and immediately pour the fufu powder into the bowl till soaks up all the water in the bowl
- Turn the solution with a turning stick until it forms a mold and completely mixes with water.
- Your fufu is ready to serve
Because this method is prepare with fufu flour or powder, it is more likely to be used in Europe or the United States where only sealed imported fufu flour is available. But if you can lay hands on fresh fufu, methods 1 and 2 or your only options.
Also remember that fufu is eaten together with a soup. So until you prepare your soup, your fufu is not really ready to be served.
What does fufu taste like?
Raw fufu is sour to taste. This is because of the fermentation of the cassava tuber during processing. Cooked fufu, on the other hand, has a neutral taste. It can be mildly sour at times, especially when not properly cooked. You can compare it the taste of cooked potato or yam mash, except yam mold are more delicous when eaten as standalone and sweet potatoes are, of course, sweeter than a cassava mash.
Why is fufu not chewed?
Cooked fufu can be chewed. In fact, some persons chew fufu while eating. However fufu fall under a family of food called ‘swallow’. These food are eaten by dipping small molds of them in a sauce or soup and then swallowing them whole.
Other factors that discourages chewing fufu are:
- Cooked fufu does not have a sweet taste.
- It can also stick to your gum and between your teeth when chewed.
But as earlier mentioned, while the majority swallow fufu whole, a few, very few, minority still chew fufu when eating.
Is fufu cooked or raw
Fufu is eaten cooked. You cannot eat raw fufu, and this is for many reasons:
- It has an unpleasant taste
- It has an sour, unpleasant smell. (imagine eating fermented, raw yam)
It is not healthy. Raw cassava contains cyanogenic glycosides. Remember cyanide? Those things terrorists chew in Hollywood movie when they don’t want to be captured alive. Of course, it’s not as deadly Hollywood’s cyanide, but enough to cause fatal cyanide poisoning This is the plant’s protection from carnivoirs eating them.
The level of this chemical is only reduced to edible levels after passing through the complete processing stage: peeling, soaking, drying and cooking.. Eating raw fufu only exposes you to a relatively higer amount of this naturally occuring chemical.
Did I just scare you?
Don’t worry, fufu is safe to eat, even apple seeds contain cyanide, of course you haven stopped eating apples have you? You simply don’t gulp down the seeds, right?
How healthy is fufu?
Fufu is mainly carbohydrate, with a high starch content. . It is cooked cassava in its basic form. As such we can compare its nutritional values to that of cooked cassava. Other nutrients you’ll get from eating this swallow in its various combinations comes from the soup and its various condiments.
As for the nutritional value of cooked cassava, check the table below.
NUTRIENTS IN 100g OF COOKED CASSAVANameAmountUnitWater55gEnergy191kcalProtein1.42gTotal lipid (fat)3.03gCarbohydrate, by difference39.6gFiber, total dietary1.9gSugars, total including NLEA1.78gCalcium, Ca17mgIron, Fe0.28mgMagnesium, Mg22mgPhosphorus, P28mgPotassium, K282mgSodium, Na145mgZinc, Zn0.36mgCopper, Cu0.104mgSelenium, Se0.7µgVitamin C, total ascorbic acid18.2mgThiamin0.082mgRiboflavin0.048mgNiacin0.845mgVitamin B-60.1mgFolate, total24µgFolate, food24µgFolate, DFE24µgCholine, total24.9mgVitamin A, RAE13µgRetinol12µgCarotene, beta13µgVitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)0.56mgVitamin K (phylloquinone)4.4µgFatty acids, total saturated0.798gFatty acids, total monounsaturated1.02gFatty acids, total polyunsaturated0.864gCholesterol2mg
Credit: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Although cassava contains cyanogenic glycosides, according to a whitepaper by O.O Tewe:
- 50% or more of the cyanide content is removed during peeling.
- 98.6% of this chemical is removed during soaking and sundrying.
- About 90% is lost after 15 minutes boiling cassava tubers.
- 98% reduction after fermenting and drying
So when adequately processed (such as like the conventional processes mentioned earlier in this article) fufu is completely safe to eat.
Is fufu hard to swallow?
When properly processed, fufu is mild on the throat. Of course, it can become very hard on the throat when not properly done. This is largely due to insufficient water in the mold, than the mold itself. If you must swallow fufu, feel it by mulching it with your washed hands. If is difficult to mulch, there is likely not enough water.
The good thing about fufu is that even after processing, you can still add water and mulch it together to soften it to your taste.
Does fufu have a smell
Oh yes! It sure does. Fufu has a trademark smell. It is not unpleasant though. The distinct smell of fufu can last on your hands for hours after eating. In fact, someone who knows the food can tell that you eat fufu simply by giving you a handshake.
A friend once said, ‘fufu smell can last on your palms longer than MTN (a local Internet Service Provider) data monthly subscription can last on your phone’. This is the trademark of fufu.
To eliminate this smell, wash your hands with a dish soap, soap or detergent after eating. This should help to completely eliminate the smell or drastically reduce it.
what is fufu called in English
Fufu is a local name from Twi origin. It is a distinct name and as such has no English equivalent. Though it has a few variations or completely different names in different African countries, it remains “fufu” in English.
what is the white stuff in fufu?
If you see a white stuff in fufu, it is still fufu. It’s obviously a section that wasn’t properly cooked.
Why is some fufu slimy?
Fufu is generally doughy. If it looks slimy, it is already spoiled and will need to be thrown away. Spoiled fufu is also identified by brownish or yellowish spots. This is mold on the fufu. In that case, discarding it into a garbage container is your best option.
How long does it take to digest fufu?
According to Mayo Clinic, it takes about 6–8 hours to digest. Fufu is no different. After 6–8 hours, fufu that has been eaten should be fully digested.
Is fufu Nigerian?
No it’s not. However due to it’s large population, it’s relatively higher diaspora population compared to other African countries, and being one of the top 2 African countries with the largest foreign market, Nigerian’s version of fufu has become more widely known and recognized than that of other African countries.
But fufu is more of an African meal, with reports of similar food in the Caribeans.
Conclusion
It’s been a lengthy read for a food article, I understand. But I’ve tried to give a detailed explanation of this sumptuous African delicacy. As an arguable “fact”, fufu is arguableAfrican’s most popular indigenous food. Forget about jollof rice, we’re yet to claim intellectual property to that food!
Fufu’s smell on your hands is eternal!
The cooking is long!
The processing is tiduous!
The turning requires strenght and stamina!
But every stress experienced is forgotten when you sit with a bowl of fufu and your favorite soup
One more thing…
If you’re yet to read my article on fufu and egusi, you’re on a longggggg thing. Go check it out! It’s worth the read.
