Coconut Jollof Rice

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Coconut Jollof rice, is the beautiful younger sister to the regular Jollof rice. The mix of the ingredients makes this dish extra adventurous. From the coconut oil to the use of the desiccated coconut oil, makes every morsel absolutely delicious. I said to myself “GOD Bless who ever thought out this wonderful combination.”

This recipe is quite versatile, in the sense that one can use anything from coconut milk to coconut water to prepare it. There some already made coconut milk in containers and there is the fresh one which you have to squeeze out of the coconut after blending it.

With my obsession with coconut, I decided to try this recipe. It is just like the regular jollof rice, only made with coconut milk instead of meat stock. For mother’s day, we  made this dish and  my ajebutters ate bowls and bowls of it. It had this coconutty taste. The coconut seemed to blend well with the fried tomatoes. After this, we love coconut rice even made with tomatoes

To make coconut milk, break a coconut, remove the meat, cut into little pieces and blend along with some warm water. Pour the blend into a bowl, add some more water if needed and pour through a fine mesh sieve while squeezing out the  juices. Easy right? No more suffering and grating coconuts like our mothers used to have us do. Those were the days we used to dread making coconut rice 🙂 Not anymore. Eureka!

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Coconut Jollof Rice
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • 2 cups of regular long grain rice
  • 1 red bell pepper
  • 2 habanero peppers or ata-rodo
  • 1 large onion
  • 1-2 plum tomatoes
  • 1 garlic clove (grated)
  • ½-1 inch of ginger (grated)
  • 2tbsps of tomato paste
  • 2 onga cubes
  • ¼ tsp of curry powder
  • 1 tsp of black pepper
  • 1 tsp of white pepper
  • 1tsp of thyme
  • 1-2bay leaf
  • 6cloves(optional)
  • ¼ tsp of nutmeg
  • 2 cups of coconut milk
  • a knob or an inch of butter
  • 3-4tbsps of coconut oil. Another cooking oil can work
  • hot water or meat stock
  • salt to taste
For garnishing
  • 1tbsp desiccated coconut(optional)
  • 1 diced plum tomatoes or 6 cherry or grape tomatoes for garnishing
  • about a handful of onion for garnishing
Instructions
prep
  1. wash rice with warm water until the water runs clear; then drain
  2. chop peppers, tomatoes and half of the onion; then blend along with the cloves and boil until the water is dry(the cloves are optional)
  3. slice remaining onion
method
  1. heat up a pot with butter and coconut oil, sauté onions and the bay leaf until the onion is translucent. Pour in the thyme, black pepper 1 Onga cube, white pepper and curry. Sauté for another 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste and fry until grainy; then add your boiled tomato mix and garlic and keep frying. Once the tomato paste and pepper mix is properly fried, it will look a little dark and the oil will float to the top. Remove the pot from the heat; then pour in the rice and mix with the fried tomatoes until each grain is coated with the mix. Pour in coconut milk just until a little above the rice. If the coconut milk is not enough, top off with some meat stock or water and check for seasonings(do not stir). If any more seasoning is needed you may add salt to taste and the other Onga cube. Return the pot to the heat and bring the rice to a boil, cover with foil a wrapper and the lid of the pot; then reduce the heat. Cook rice until al dente. After about 10-15minutes check the rice for doneness. Add the grape tomatoes, desiccated coconut, chopped onions, nut meg and ginger. If the rice is still a little hard, remove the pot from heat or simply just reduce the heat and cover with the foil wrap and the tight lid for another 10minutes to cook in its own steam. Once done, stir and serve. If you like a slightly soft rice , you may add about ¼ cup of warm water, along with the garnishes. Cover the pot once more. After cooking for about a few minutes turn the heat off and let the rice sit covered for another 10minutes; then fluff and serve.

 

4 comments

  1. Gift Esosa says:

    Nma, thanks alot for this awesome recipe. Been looking for this recipe for ages, you’re God-sent my dear.. I’ll try it out next week and I’ll come and testify..
    Thanks again!
    Grateful!

  2. Doyin says:

    This recipe was very useful and the result was yum. I did a bit of twist to mine and made it like fried coconut rice by adding stir fried vegetables to mine. I didn’t use the tomato paste but it was also very nice. Thank you for this blog.

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