Leah Kelly Food Project

-Strips of beef (however many you please)

-Suya spice **

-Groundnut oil

-Salt

** If Suya spice is unavailable in your area, the following can be used to make the spice:

-5 tablespoons of crushed Kuli Kuli (groundnut powder)

-5 tablespoons of ginger powder

-2 tablespoons cayenne pepper flakes

-10 strands of African Pepper

-1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Cut the beef into thin fillets and thread them onto skewers.

2. Put some groundnut oil in a bowl and add a dash of salt.

3. Using a cooking brush, rub the oil on the strips of beef (this will help the suya spice stick to it).

4. In a wide dish or counter, spread the suya spice and dab the strips of beef in it so that the suya covers as much of the meat as possible.

5. Place the spiced meat on a plate and let sit for an hour.

6. Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

7. Place the beef flat on the oven rack to roast for 15-20 minutes. 

8. After 15-20 minutes, flip the beef over to cook the underside for another 15-20 minutes.

9. Rub a small amount of groundnut oil on both sides of the beef, turn the oven up to 325 degrees F and roast for another 5 minutes.

10. Enjoy!

Suya is commonly served with chunks of onions, tomatoes, cabbage or cucumbers.

Overall, this meal is extremely healthy especially since it is commonly served with lots of vegetables. To begin with, suya is made from all natural ingredients. It depends on where the beef is purchased from, but it is completely possible for the meat to be free range and organic, which means that there will not be preservatives. In addition to the beef, there are only three other ingredients: a small bit of oil, salt and spice, which are all natural. So overall, my entire meal is whole food.

While red meat is not always the best for you, it is certainly a great source of protein and your body will process it well. The only major thing that could affect your body is the spice, which may cause some heartburn and depending on what your body is used to, you might not be able to eat this every day.

Depending on whether or not his meal is being prepared in Nigeria or America, the ingredients may have traveled from far away. In America, there are Nigerian stores that sell suya spice that has traveled all the way from Nigeria, but they are in small packages that would not impact the environment in major ways during transport.

This meal is not very expensive to make but does take some searching for the ingredients, especially if you have to make your own suya spice. In my opinion it tastes better and is definitely healthier for you than fast food but unfortunately, most people would choose fast food because it is simply more convenient. Overall, however, the people who would be financially benefiting from this meal would be Nigerians either working in the store or in the country preparing the spice.

Since this meal is such a large part of the Nigerian culture, it is nearly impossible for someone to grow or gather all of the ingredients themselves. However in terms of the beef there could be lots of corruption along the line of production because of the mistreatment of some animals in some slaughterhouses.

Overall, this meal is extremely healthy and although it is hard to gather the ingredients, it is certainly worth it for this amazing meal.

I have sincerely enjoyed this unit because I love learning and health and nutrition. However, it was a little hard to watch the TED Talk called “Teach Every Child About Food” because it was heartbreaking to me the food lives that some of these children have and in some cases, how it is slowly killing them. It inspires me to want to make changes wherever I can to improve the health of children nationwide.

Through this unit, I have actually learned different ways to help. First of all, in our Organic Food warmup, some very specific and helpful things were pointed out in the New York Times article. First of all, that not everything “local” is organic, and not everything organic is local. This brings up a stereotype that many people simply believe because that’s how it is advertised. Speaking of advertising, there is tons of false advertising in the industry. Products that are in fact not organic are labeled as so due to lack of clarity in the rules of what “organic” is. Another thing that I can do to change the food industry is to sign petitions and join in movements that will require companies to correctly label their products.

In addition, that is one way that I am going to improve my own “food life”: reading the label. Through this unit, I have learned to not always trust the advertisements and the words on the front of the packaging, but to instead fully read the label and understand the ingredients. Also, the “Food Rule Slides” that our class created really made me thing about what I eat and what restrictions I should put on what I eat. Specifically I loved Ron’s, “You’re only as real as the food you eat.” That made me reevaluate what I’m putting into my body and will cause me to make changes about what I’m eating.

Moving forward, I feel much more knowledgeable and therefore much more confident about what I know about healthy food and will adjust my life and diet accordingly.