Budget-friendly recipes: Lentil moi-moi

Hi, I'm Chinedum, a PhD student of Law.

I'm an international student and since moving to the UK, my home country's currency has been devalued by over 200%. Therefore, budgeting is my only option.

I've always been someone who prides myself on making the most of things and I live by the old saying, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade". I try to find fun and interesting ways to budget and enjoy life on a budget. In this blog, I'd like to share my favourite meal to cook on a budget.

My love for cooking

My mum is a professional caterer and I always loved cooking growing up. My mum refused to let me into her kitchen as she said I would make a mess! Since I was so desperate to cook, I started 'cooking' with tins and sticks in the back of our house at about five years old.

Thankfully, after relentless crying and pleading, she let me in when I was about ten years old. Unfortunately, this backfired as she turned me into the kitchen maid! Sometimes, I wish I hadn't begged so much. 

However, she did teach me some amazing recipes. Here is my favourite budget-friendly meal from home:

Lentil moi-moi

Since coming to Bradford, I've learned how to fuse British food and ingredients with Nigerian recipes and I've found it to be extremely valuable.

This particular meal of lentil moi-moi is amazingly close to the traditional Nigerian beans moi-moi.

Indeed, if you were not told, you would not believe it. Pound-for-pound, lentils are significantly cheaper than beans, especially the honey beans which most people in Nigeria prefer to use.

Ingredients

• 80ml vegetable oil
• 1 cup of lentils
• 2 white onions
• ½ red bell pepper
• Protein of choice (I used flaked fish, boiled eggs and frozen sausages)
• Pepper to taste
• Thyme (pinch)
• Curry powder (pinch)
• 1 stock cube (I used Maggi) dissolved into ½ a cup of water
• Moi-moi leaves (optional)
• Green, red and yellow peppers to garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Soak lentils overnight or until they double in size.
2. Preheat your oven to 180°.
3. Blend together: lentils, 1 and ½ onions, red bell pepper and pepper. Once blended, pour into a pot.
4. Heat up your oil in a large pan and then pour into your lentil mixture.
5. Slice up the rest of your onions and them into the pot. Add in your protein of choice, spices and stock. It should be a consistency suitable for pouring.
6. Grease your baking tin and pour in the mixture.
7. Before placing the lentil mixture in the oven, line another large pot and cover the bottom with moi-moi leaves. This step is optional but gives the dish an authentic taste. Then, pour water to cover the leaves. Place this pot on the bottom shelf.
8. Place your lentil mixture on the middle shelf of the oven.
9. Your lentil moi-moi is cooked when it's firm to the touch, shrinks from the edges of the baking tin or the centre is no longer raw.

Serving

If you're using the green, red and yellow peppers for garnishing, add them to some boiling water for a few minutes. 

Moi-moi is best served with custard, drinking garri or cornmeal. It is a filling meal but not too heavy. It's a versatile meal and you can have it for breakfast, lunch or dinner. 

This recipe serves 3 people. Moi-moi freezes well so you can double or triple this recipe and freeze it for your convenience.

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