Eat the right food during Ramadan

Ebun Sessou, Ramadan Special

The holy month of Ramadan is here and it is an opportunity to lose weight, especially by performing light exercise and eating the right kind of food.

But a balanced diet is critical to maintain good health, sustain an active lifestyle and attain the full benefits of Ramadan. There is no need to consume excess food at pre-dawn meal Sahur, and evening meal or breaking fast Iftar.

One should eat a variety of food using principles of moderation and balance. Benefits of fasting appear only in those who maintain their diet, avoiding the high calorie and highly processed foods prepared during this time.

Most desired food at the season include barley, wheat, oats, millet, semolina, beans, lentils, whole meal flour, rice, moi-moi, ogi, akara,  custard, Quaker oath, cereal generally, chicken, beef.

While heavy food including pounded yam, amala, fufu, eba are also considered. Light food to be taken include whole wheat bread, milk, vegetable salads, fruits, tea or coffee

While fruits like oranges, watermelon, banana, pine-apple, apples are also common. It is also necessary that observers of this season drink as much water, eat fruits and vegetables as possible between Iftar and bedtime.

They should also limit the amount of sweet foods taken at Iftar, limit the intake of fried and fatty foods.

In Nigeria, it could be eaten alone or alongside, rice, akamu(pap) and several other foods. The ingredients for moi-moi include beans, groundnut oil, tatashe, crayfish, salt, maggi(seasoning), onions, and either (minced meat, cooked fish, mashed meat, corned beef, fried fish, egg) or a combination of two or three can be used. Tatashe is a red hot chili pepper, purposefully used for natural coloring. It changes the colour of the moi- moi to red.

Segregate three cups of beans(remove sand and impurities) and soak in cool water for five minutes then begin washing. Wash and squeeze hardly to remove the shell, this may take up to 20 minutes.

You just keep washing and squeezing and sieving till the shell is totally removed(it’s not too hard), transfer into a container and add the crayfish, onions, tatashe(without seeds) and pepper(red) then go and ground.

Once ground, while still in the container, add maggi(seasoning), groundnut oil. just pour in the oil and stir, add about two cooking spoon full, add salt to taste.

Once the taste seem nice, transfer into the moi- moi plate and drop inside the pot(to prevent burning, a piece of clothe is left underneath the pot) you can place the plate above each other provided the pot would be properly covered. once set, add water simultaneously, like every ten minutes so it does not float above the first plate.

Source: The Vanguard