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Yam Flour (Elubo / Amala) substitute

Best substitute

Plantain Flour (Elubo Ogede)

Use the same amount by volume as the yam flour (elubo / amala) you are replacing

Best for amala

Different taste

The best substitute for yam flour is plantain flour (elubo ogede) at 1:1, which makes a slightly sweeter, lighter amala using the same method. Cassava flour or fermented lafun swaps in at 1:1 for a paler, faintly sour swallow, and semolina at 1:1 by volume is the easiest supermarket option, though the result is grainy, pale yellow and tastes of wheat rather than earthy yam.

Other yam flour (elubo / amala) substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

Substitutes for Yam Flour (Elubo / Amala) with ratios

  1. 2Cassava Flour or Lafun

    Different taste

    Use the same amount by volume

    Milled dried cassava, either plain cassava flour or the fermented Nigerian version sold as lafun.

    What changes
    Best for
    amala-style swallows, gluten-free swallows, serving with efo riro, ewedu or egusi

    This makes a genuinely good swallow, but a white one, which is the visible difference: amala is meant to be dark. Lafun is fermented, so it carries a distinct clean sourness that plain cassava flour does not, and that tang is either the thing you love or the thing that throws you. Texturally it is smoother and less elastic than yam flour. Add the flour a little more slowly, since cassava seizes faster.

  2. 3Cocoyam (Ede) Flour

    Different taste

    Use the same amount by volume

    Dried milled cocoyam or taro, sold in African grocers alongside elubo.

    What changes
    Best for
    swallows, thickening soups, gluten-free cooking

    Makes a smooth, pale grey-lilac swallow with a mild nutty sweetness, softer and more slippery than amala. It holds together well and does not go rubbery on standing, which some people prefer. The flavour is further from yam flour than plantain flour is, and the colour is nothing like it, so expect the plate to look unfamiliar even though it eats well.

  3. 4Semolina

    Taste and texture differ

    Use the same amount by volume

    Coarse durum wheat semolina, used across Nigeria to make the swallow known simply as semo.

    What changes
    Best for
    quick swallows, serving with any Nigerian soup, cooking outside Africa with supermarket ingredients

    The easiest option to buy and the furthest from amala in character. Semo is pale yellow, distinctly grainy on the tongue and tastes of wheat, with none of yam flour's earthy, faintly bitter depth. It functions perfectly well as a vehicle for stew and it is a real Nigerian dish in its own right, so this is a fair swap on utility and a poor one on authenticity. It contains gluten, unlike everything else on this list.

  4. 5Pounded Yam Flour (Poundo)

    Taste and texture differ

    Use the same amount by volume

    Instant flour made from dried white yam, the same plant as elubo but processed differently.

    What changes
    Best for
    swallows, serving with egusi, efo riro or ogbono soup

    Same raw material, different result. Poundo makes a white, stiffer, stretchier dough with a clean neutral flavour, because it is not fermented or dried the way elubo is. If what you want is a yam swallow, this is excellent. If what you want specifically is amala, with its dark colour and earthy edge, poundo will not get you there. Use a little more water; poundo sets firmer.

  5. 6Plain Instant Potato Flakes

    Taste and texture differ

    Use the same amount by volume, with about a third more water

    Dried potato flakes as a last-resort swallow when nothing else is in the cupboard.

    What changes
    Best for
    emergency swallows, small single portions

    Worth being honest: this gives you a smooth, soft, pale mash that carries a soup adequately and has no stretch at all, so it collapses when you try to tear and dip. Buy the plainest flakes you can find, since most brands add milk solids, butter flavour and salt, all of which read wrong under a Nigerian stew. It is edible and quick, and nobody will mistake it for amala.

What is Yam Flour (Elubo / Amala)?

Yam Flour (Elubo / Amala) is Dried white African yam milled into a fine tan-brown flour, sold as elubo or elubo isu and stirred into boiling water to make amala, the Yoruba swallow.

Cooking tips

  • Amala is made by sprinkling the flour into water that is already boiling and folding it in, not by mixing flour with cold water first. Almost every lumpy amala comes from tipping the flour in all at once. Add it in a steady stream in one spot in the pot and press the lumps against the side with the back of a wooden turner.
  • Once it comes together, turn the heat right down, cover the pot for two to three minutes, then fold it again. That resting steam finishes gelatinising the starch and gets rid of the raw floury taste, which is the difference between good amala and chalky amala.
  • The colour going from tan to dark brown or near black in the pot is normal oxidation, not burning. Amala dudu is supposed to be dark; if yours stays pale you probably used cassava or plantain flour.
  • Start with roughly one cup of elubo to two cups of water and adjust with splashes of hot water while you fold. It is far easier to loosen a stiff dough than to save a runny one, so start on the stiff side.
  • Elubo goes musty and sour on the shelf. Smell it before you use it: fresh elubo smells faintly earthy and toasty, while stale elubo smells sharp and fermented, and no amount of folding will fix the taste of a bad batch. Keep it airtight and away from heat.
  • Yam flour is naturally gluten free, as are plantain, cassava and cocoyam flour. Semolina and the wheat-flour swallow known as tuwo are not, so if you are cooking for coeliac disease stick to the root and plantain flours.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave the amala out?

You can serve the soup or stew with rice, boiled yam or bread instead, and it will be a good meal. What you lose is the point of the pairing: a swallow is a soft, neutral, stretchy dough designed to be torn and used to scoop soup, and rice does not do that. If you want the same eating experience, use one of the other flours here rather than skipping it.

Is elubo the same as amala?

Elubo is the flour and amala is what you make with it, in the same way that flour is not bread. Shops often label the packet amala flour, which is fine. Elubo isu means yam flour specifically, elubo ogede means plantain flour, and both are used to make amala, which is why the words get used loosely.

Why is my amala lumpy or sticky?

Lumps come from adding the flour too fast into water that is not at a full boil, and from not pressing the flour against the pot as you fold. Stickiness usually means too much water or not enough folding; keep working it over low heat and it tightens. If it is stiff and cracking instead, add a splash of hot water, cover for a minute and fold again.

Can I use ordinary wheat flour to make amala?

Plain wheat flour makes a gluey, pasty swallow that is unpleasant on its own; the Nigerian wheat swallow known as tuwo uses a specific wheat meal and a different technique. Semolina is the wheat product that actually works and is widely eaten as semo. If wheat is what you have, use semolina rather than all-purpose flour.

Is yam flour the same as the yam flour in Western supermarkets?

Usually not. What Americans call yams in the produce aisle are almost always sweet potatoes, and sweet potato flour makes an orange, sweet, quite different swallow. Elubo comes from true white African yam, which you will find in African and Caribbean shops. If the packet says elubo, poundo or African yam flour, you have the right thing.

Related substitutes

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