West Africa's night-market kebab, created by Hausa butchers: thin-sliced beef coated in yaji — a rub of ground peanuts, ginger, and hot pepper — then fanned out on skewers over open flame. Sold wrapped in newspaper with raw onion and extra yaji for dipping.
Also known as: soya, tsire, tsinge, suya spice kebab, Nigerian suya
Watch it made
Ingredients
- 600 g beef sirloin or topside, sliced 5 mm thin across the grain
- 80 g kuli-kuli (defatted peanut cake) or roasted peanuts, ground and pressed dry
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp cayenne
- 1 tsp garlic powder and 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 stock cube, crushed
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 30 ml groundnut oil
- Red onion, tomato and cabbage, sliced, to serve
How to make it
- 1
Pound or blitz the peanuts, then press the powder between paper towels until it feels like dry sand; mix with ginger, cayenne, garlic, onion, stock cube and salt to make yaji.
- 2
Brush the beef ribbons with oil and dredge through two-thirds of the yaji, patting it on. Rest 1 hour uncovered.
- 3
Weave the ribbons onto skewers in loose folds.
- 4
Grill over hot coals 3-4 minutes per side until the crust darkens and the edges frill.
- 5
Dust with the reserved yaji and serve heaped with raw onion, tomato and cabbage.
Pro tip: Yaji stands or falls on dryness. Oily ground peanuts clump, slide off and scorch; kuli-kuli exists precisely because Hausa suya men press the oil out first. Paper towels and patience get you 90% of the way.
