What Is Ayamase? Nigeria's Bold Green Pepper "Designer Stew"

Order this at a Nigerian gathering and you'll notice something: it doesn't get passed around like everything else. Ayamase — Nigeria's "designer stew" — has a reputation, and it's earned.

What is Ayamase?

Ayamase is a dark green pepper stew from southwestern Nigeria, made with green bell peppers, onions, and a generous mix of meats — often beef, offal, and dried fish — seasoned with locust beans (iru) for a deep, fermented savouriness. The green peppers (rather than the red ones used in most Nigerian stews) are what give it its distinctive colour and name.

Where the name comes from

The stew traces back to Ikenne-Remo in Ogun State, where, as the story goes, a woman known as "Aya Mase" — roughly, "Mase's wife" in Yoruba — first sold it to get by. It's also widely called ofada stew, since it's traditionally served with ofada rice, a short, unpolished local rice with its own nutty flavour.

Why it's called "designer stew"

Ayamase started as street food in Lagos, but the effort it takes — the green peppers alone need real work to prepare properly — turned it into something more. Today it's the stew people order to mark an occasion: parties, family gatherings, a proper celebration meal. "Designer" isn't about the ingredients being fancy — it's about the reputation the dish has earned.

We serve ours with white rice, built the traditional way — real green peppers, real locust bean depth, no shortcuts. If you've only had the red-stew version of Nigerian food, this is the one to try next.