Efo Riro (Yoruba Spinach Stew)

Name: Efo Riro (Yoruba Spinach Stew)
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 5
Cuisine: Nigerian
Ingredients: 3 large Red bell peppers; 2 Scotch bonnet peppers; 1 Onion, small; 1 Onion, medium, diced; 60 ml (1/4 cup) Red palm oil; 2 tbsp Crayfish, blended; 2 tbsp Locust beans (iru); 1 Bouillon cube; 680 g (1.5 lb) Spinach, blanched; 120 ml (1/2 cup) Stockfish; about a handful Dried prawns; 450 g (1 lb) Beef; to taste Salt

A Yoruba spinach stew built on fried palm oil and blended red peppers, seasoned with crayfish and locust beans — greens treated as the main event, not a side.

Source

Recipe by Lola Osinkolu · 📱 Influencer · Lola Osinkolu — Nigerian food writer behind Chef Lola's Kitchen

Names of cooks and creators appear as source credit only. More Recipes Please is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by them.

Chef Lola's Kitchen (Lola Osinkolu) — Published by Lola Osinkolu on Chef Lola's Kitchen as 'Spinach Stew (Efo Riro)'. Quantities, the 5-serving yield and the 30-minute total are taken from the recipe card on that page. Two of her instructions shape the dish: preheat the palm oil hot 'but not bleached', and fry the blended peppers for the full 15 minutes while stirring constantly so they thicken without catching.

Cook: Lola Osinkolu

Watch it being made · 3 videos

Lola Osinkolu Flavor by steph Tasty UK

⏱ 30 min🍽 5 servings🔥 378 kcal🇳🇬 Nigeria🌶️🌶️

Gluten-freeDairy-free

Steps

Blend the red bell peppers, scotch bonnets and the small onion together until smooth.
Blanch the spinach: drop it into boiling water for under a minute, until it just wilts and brightens, then drain and squeeze out the water hard.
💡 Squeezing matters more than it sounds. Wet spinach dumps water into the sauce at the last minute and undoes the 15 minutes you spent cooking it down.
Heat the palm oil in a pan over medium heat until it is hot but still red — she is explicit that it should not bleach.
💡 Bleached palm oil has gone from flavourful to harsh. If it turns pale and starts smoking, throw it out and start again — you cannot cook the acrid taste back out.
Add the diced onion and stir-fry until golden brown at the edges, about 3–4 minutes.
Pour in the blended peppers and fry about 15 minutes over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens and no longer tastes raw.
💡 She warns to stir constantly here to prevent burning — blended pepper sticks and scorches the moment it thickens. A wide pan reduces faster and burns less than a deep pot.
Stir in the crayfish, locust beans, bouillon cube and salt. Keep stirring until everything is evenly blended into the sauce.
Taste the sauce now, before anything else goes in.
💡 This is the last moment you can judge the seasoning cleanly. Once the meat, stockfish and prawns are in, they all bring their own salt and you are guessing.
Add the beef, stockfish and dried prawns, and pour in a little water or stock to loosen the sauce back to a spoonable consistency.
Cover and bring it back to a gentle simmer — you want a lazy bubble at the edges, not a rolling boil.
Add the blanched spinach and mix well, so every strand is coated in red sauce.
💡 Fold rather than stir hard. Efo riro should look like greens in sauce, not green purée.
Leave it to cook uncovered for 2–5 minutes, until the spinach has drunk up the sauce and the pan looks glossy rather than watery.
Adjust the seasoning if it needs it, and serve hot with pounded yam, eba, rice or boiled plantain.

💡 Tips

Beginner's mistake: adding raw spinach straight to the pot to save a step. It releases a surprising amount of water and turns a thick stew into soup. Blanch and squeeze — it takes 2 minutes.
Can't find locust beans or stockfish? Make it without them rather than substituting something unrelated — it is still a good stew. The crayfish is the one savoury element genuinely worth hunting down, and dried shrimp will stand in for it.
Efo riro traditionally uses Nigerian greens — shoko, ugwu or bitterleaf. Spinach is the everyday international swap and is what she calls for here; kale works too but needs a couple of extra minutes.
Vegetarian version: leave out the beef, stockfish, prawns and crayfish and lean harder on the locust beans and mushrooms. It is a real departure from her recipe, but the palm-oil-and-pepper base carries it.