Origin and health benefit of kunu
What is kunu? Kunu is a delicious Nigerian beverage made from millet or maize spiced with ginger or sweet potatoes for a refreshing taste.
Origin and health benefit of kunu. It has it’s origin traced back to the northern part of Nigeria where the weather is usually very hot. Now let us go a bit deeper into the origin of kunu, in the early 1800s, Hajiya Fatima from one of the northern states in Nigeria thought of a beverage to help people combat the hot weather and the idea of cold, iced or chilled kunu came to her mind. Overtime, it has not only become a common beverage in the northern part of Nigeria but the whole country as well. Today we will discus the ingredients used in making kunu, method or preparation for making kunu and some of the health benefits of it.
Ingredients used in making kunu are:
- Millet or maize
- Sugar
- Ginger
- Sweet potatoes
- Tiger nut
- Almond
- Dates
- Coconut
Kindly note that there are two types of kunu namely Kunu Aya(made from millet, tiger nuts, almonds, dates and coconut) and the regular kind of kunu(made from millet, sugar, ginger and sweet potatoes) In this article, we shall be discussing the method of preparing kunu aya and the regular kunu as well as their health benefits.
Method of preparing the regular kunu are:
- Wash and soak your desired quantity of millet
- Add sliced ginger and some chopped sweet potatoes to the soaked mixture and allow to ferment for at least a day
- Take the fermented mixture to a mill and grind to form a paste, cook the paste for few minutes and allow to cool
- Filter the paste using water as your solvent
- After filtration allow to settle, pour out the water at the top of your solute
- Add sugar to your solute and taste till you get your desired sweet taste
Health benefits of regular kunu are:
- It is very refreshing
- It helps to cure sore throat due to presence of ginger
- It contains vitamin E for healthy glowing skin due to the presence of sweet potatoes
- It gives energy
- It is an appetizer, in the sense that it acts as vitamin C which helps to increase hunger for those who find it difficult to eat well
Method of preparing kunu aya are:
- Wash and soak your millet or maize and allow to ferment for few hours
- Add few pieces of tiger nuts, almonds, dates and sliced coconut and leave for at least two hours
- Take the mixture to a mill and grind to form a paste
- Add few ice cubes to the paste to avoid fermentation of the paste
- Filter the paste using very cold water as your solvent
- Allow to settle and then collect your solute
- Pour the solute into desired container and refrigerate
Please not that kunu aya can not exceed two days and must be kept in the refrigerator under very cool temperature
Health benefits of kunu aya are:
- It helps the testosterones and estrogen to function well
- It is very refreshing
- It contains several vitamins which is needed for healthy living
- It is a natural form of energy drink.
