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Nshima

Name: Nshima
Total time: 30 min
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Zambia
Ingredients: 300g Corn grits; 1L Water

Side Dish

⏱ 30 min

👥 Serves 4

Difficulty ⭐

White maize meal worked into a stiff paste — Zambia's everyday staple.

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📖 The Story Behind This Dish

Nshima is Zambia's staple: white maize meal (mealie meal) worked stiff in hot water. It's so central that Zambians say if you haven't eaten nshima, you haven't eaten. It's rolled small in the right hand, dented with the thumb, and used to scoop up relishes (ndiwo) of greens, meat, or fish.

🌆 Where it's eaten: In a Zambian village home, white paste is shaped into ovals and eaten by hand by the family with stewed greens and fish stew.

🥕 Ingredients (serves 4)

Corn grits 300g
Water 1L

👩‍🍳 Instructions

Warm 800ml water in a pot, add 100g of the maize meal mixed with 200ml water, and bring to a boil, stirring.
Cover and cook on low for 10 minutes into a thin porridge.
Add the remaining maize meal a little at a time and work vigorously with a wooden spoon.
When smooth and stiff, cover and let steam 3 minutes.
Shape into ovals with a wet wooden paddle and serve.

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