By the Mekazon Kitchen

If you have ever watched an aunty make eba in thirty seconds flat and wondered why yours came out lumpy, you are in good company. How to make eba is one of those things nobody in a West African home writes down — you learn it standing beside someone at the stove. So we have written it down: which garri to buy here in the UAE, the ratio that actually works, and how to get a smooth ball every time.

First, what eba actually is

Eba is a swallow — a soft, dense dough you pinch off with your fingers, roll into a ball, dip into soup and eat. The name comes from Yoruba (Ẹ̀bà), and it is eaten across Nigeria, Togo, Benin and southern Ghana, where it is also called ebe or pinon. It takes one ingredient and hot water: garri, the granular flour of grated, pressed, fermented and roasted cassava.

No stock, no butter, no long kneading — which is why it is the weeknight swallow: ten minutes from cupboard to table.

Yellow garri or white garri?

The question we get most from customers in Dubai and Sharjah — and the answer is really what you grew up eating.

Yellow garri takes its colour from red palm oil added at the frying stage, which gives it a rounder flavour and a warmer look in the bowl. White garri is fried without palm oil and comes out sharper and more sour — that clean, tangy edge some people consider the whole point of eba. Both are, per the standard West African classification, two finishes of the same cassava product.

We stock all three usual buys: Yellow Garri 1kg for households eating swallow more than once a week, Yellow Garri 500g if you are testing the water, and White Garri 500g for the sour-leaning camp. Grain size matters too: coarser garri gives a more textured eba, finer a smoother one. Ours sit in the medium range — the forgiving end.

How to make eba, step by step

For two generous servings: roughly 2 cups of garri to 2 cups of just-boiled water. Start with less water than you think — you can always add, never take away.

1. Boil the water properly. Not hot-tap hot — a rolling boil. Lukewarm water is the single biggest cause of grainy eba.
2. Water into the bowl first, then rain the garri over it in a steady stream. Doing it the other way round is how lumps form.
3. Leave it 30 seconds without touching it. The granules need that moment to drink.
4. Now turn it. Use a wooden spatula or omorogun: press-and-fold from the outside in, not stir in circles. It will look wrong, then suddenly come together.
5. Check the feel. Good eba holds a ball but takes a clean thumb dent. Too stiff? A tablespoon of hot water, keep folding. Too loose? A handful more garri.
6. Mould and serve hot. Wet your hands, shape a smooth ball, get it to the table before it firms up.

Eaten traditionally, you pinch a piece with the right hand, press a dimple in with your thumb, scoop soup, and swallow without chewing. That last part surprises first-timers — it is not bread.

What to put beside it

Eba is a vehicle. The soup is the meal, and it needs to be thick enough to cling.

Egusi is the safest start — nutty, thick, forgiving — and our Egusi Powder comes ready-ground, saving you the blender step. Ofe onugbu, bitter leaf soup, is the grown-up choice: our Dry Bitter Leaf 100g wants a good wash and squeeze first, which tames it considerably. For Efik and Ibibio kitchens, Dry Okazi (Afang) Leaves — stock is short, so grab them when you see them.

Whichever soup you pick, the base is the same trio: Red Palm Oil 1L, dried Crayfish 80g for that savoury backbone, and Gino double-concentrated tomato paste. The full West Africa · Soup & Spices shelf is here if you are building a pot from scratch.

Garri does more than eba

Soaked garri is the three-minute afternoon meal every West African student knows: cold water, a spoon of sugar, roasted groundnuts, evaporated milk if you have it. Garri and beans — yoo ke garri in Ghana — pairs dry garri with soft-cooked beans and palm oil, and our Honey Beans (Ewa Oloyin) are the right beans for it.

To widen the swallow rotation: Cassava Flour makes fufu, Semolina 500g makes the semo many families prefer with lighter soups, and Ghanaian households can pick up ready-made Ga Kenkey (x2 wraps), one of the newer additions to our West African shelf. Breakfast is Pap Flour for ogi, koko and akamu. It all lives in West Africa · Swallow & Flours.

Frequently asked questions

Why is my eba lumpy?

Almost always the water. It must be at a rolling boil, and it must go into the bowl before the garri. If lumps have formed, press them against the side of the bowl with the back of your spatula rather than stirring — stirring just moves them around.

Can I make eba in the microwave?

You can, and plenty of people in Dubai apartments do. Combine garri and boiling water in a microwave-safe bowl, cover, heat 45–60 seconds, then fold vigorously. Not quite as smooth as the kettle-and-bowl method, but perfectly good on a Tuesday night.

How should I store garri in the UAE?

Airtight, away from heat and humidity. Garri keeps well by design, but our climate is hard on open bags — decant it into a sealed container the day it arrives and it stays crisp and loose rather than clumping.

Get your garri delivered

Everything above is on the shelf now, delivered across the UAE. Start with Yellow Garri 1kg for a bag that covers the month, then build the soup pot from the West Africa collection.