Tatashe pepper is a large, mild red pepper used all over Nigerian cooking, and it isn't quite the same as red bell pepper. Both are Capsicum annuum, but tatashe carries gentle heat and a fuller, paprika-like flavour, while bell pepper has almost none. Red bell pepper is still the usual stand-in when you can't find tatashe.
If you've ever blended tomatoes, onions and peppers for stew in a Nigerian kitchen, you've almost certainly used tatashe. It gives jollof and stew their deep red colour without making them fiery, and it's how a pot of stew can be deep red all the way through without blowing your head off. Below is what tatashe is, how it compares with bell pepper, paprika and cayenne, and the AFN recipes that use it.
What is tatashe?
Tatashe is the name Nigerian cooks use for a large, mild red pepper, and a Google Arts & Culture guide to Mararaba Market notes that Yoruba and Hausa speakers both call it tatashé. You'll also see it spelt tatase, as in our own ofada stew recipe. It's a member of Capsicum annuum, the same species as bell peppers, paprika peppers and cayenne. Kitchen Butterfly's guide to Nigeria's fresh peppers describes its shape as anything from bell-like to long and tapered, a bit like a poblano.
Most tatashe you'll buy is red. Green tatashe exists too, picked before it ripens, and it's much harder to find. Red tatashe is around all year, though the same guide notes a scarcity in June and July that brings smaller fruit to the market.
Is tatashe the same as red bell pepper?
No, though they're close relatives and they're often swapped. The difference comes down to heat and flavour. Bell peppers are the mildest peppers in Nigerian cooking, while tatashe contains capsaicin, the compound that makes peppers hot, so it has a gentle warmth that bell pepper lacks. Kitchen Butterfly compares its flavour to a paprika pepper with gentle heat, which is fuller than a supermarket bell pepper.
Red bell pepper became easy to buy in Nigeria only in recent years and is sometimes used in place of tatashe in stews and sauces. Outside Nigeria the swap is the norm. The food blog Eat Well Abi notes that tatashe isn't common in the UK and uses red bell pepper, and sometimes romano pepper, for its Nigerian pepper mix instead.
Is tatashe peppery?
A little. Tatashe is mild next to scotch bonnet (ata rodo) or cayenne (shombo), and it's used more for colour and flavour than for heat. That's why most Nigerian stew bases pair a lot of tatashe with a small amount of scotch bonnet: the tatashe builds the body and colour, the scotch bonnet brings the heat. If you want to know how the hot peppers compare, our guide to scotch bonnet vs habanero goes through them.
What is tatashe in English?
There's no exact English name. In English recipes, tatashe is usually called red bell pepper, sweet red pepper or simply red pepper, since that's the nearest thing on sale. Strictly, it's a mild chilli pepper of the Capsicum annuum species. Eat Well Abi says what Nigerians call tatashe is known as poblano pepper in Mexican cooking, and in shape it's closer to a poblano or a romano pepper than to a blocky bell pepper.
Is paprika the same as tatashe?
No. Paprika is a ground spice made from dried peppers, and it ranges from sweet to smoky to mildly hot depending on the type. Tatashe is a fresh pepper that you blend, slice or dry yourself. The flavours overlap, which is why a pinch of sweet or smoked paprika helps if you're using red bell pepper in place of tatashe and the stew tastes a bit flat. Choose the paprika carefully, though, because the hot kinds will change the dish.
Is cayenne pepper the same as tatashe?
No. Cayenne, known as shombo in Nigeria, is a long, thin chilli that is far hotter than tatashe. It's grown and used for heat, while tatashe is valued for flavour and colour. Shombo and tatashe often go into the same pot, doing different jobs.
What can I use instead of tatashe?
Red bell pepper is the easiest substitute, and it gives you the colour and sweetness. It lacks tatashe's gentle heat, so add a little more scotch bonnet for warmth and a small pinch of paprika for depth. Romano peppers, the long red ones sold in UK supermarkets, are another option Eat Well Abi uses, depending on what the shops have.
How Nigerian cooks use tatashe
Red tatashe is used fresh or dried in stews, soups, rice and beans. It's the backbone of the Nigerian pepper mix (tomatoes, tatashe, onions and scotch bonnet blended together) that goes into stew, jollof and fried rice. Green tatashe goes into green pepper stews such as ayamase, also called ofada sauce or designer stew.
AFN recipes made with tatashe
Nigerian chicken stew
Tomato, tatashe and scotch bonnet blended and fried down in oil until the raw taste is gone, then simmered with chicken. Get the Nigerian chicken stew recipe.
Buka stew with assorted meats (obe ata)
The fiery pepper stew of western Nigeria's buka eating houses, made with green tatashe, plenty of unripe habaneros and assorted meats. Get the buka stew with assorted meats (obe ata) recipe.
Ayamase stew
The green pepper stew of southwestern Nigeria, made with green peppers rather than red. Get the ayamase stew recipe.
Moi moi (moin moin)
Steamed bean pudding, with tatashe blended into the beans. Get the moi moi recipe.
Nigerian jollof spaghetti
The jollof method applied to pasta, with the same blended base of tomato, tatashe and scotch bonnet. Get the Nigerian jollof spaghetti recipe.
Tatashe questions
Is red bell pepper the same as tatashe?
No. They're the same species, but tatashe has gentle heat and a fuller flavour, while red bell pepper has no heat at all. Bell pepper is still the standard substitute.
Is tatashe hot?
Only mildly. It's far milder than scotch bonnet or cayenne and is used mostly for colour and flavour.
What is tatashe called in Hausa?
Hausa speakers commonly call it tatashe too. A Google Arts & Culture guide to Mararaba Market says Yoruba and Hausa speakers both use the name.
Can I use dried tatashe?
Yes. Red tatashe is used dried as well as fresh in stews, soups, rice and beans.
Hardest thing living in Toronto is getting actual tatashe. The Asian markets in Scarborough carry red pointed peppers that look close, but the water content is too high and it ruins the richness when blending for party jollof. I end up roasting regular bell peppers to mimic that low-moisture smokiness abeg.
I managed to track some down at an Afro-Caribbean shop near the station after searching high and low. The vendor warned me about the seeds giving off slightly more heat than expected compared to bell peppers, and he was spot on, it completely changed the colour of my stew base to that proper rich crimson.
Ah bon, I did not know the exact Nigerian name for this long red pepper! In Silver Spring I usually buy whatever red pepper they have at the international market, but now I see why my stew color is never as deep red as my friends make it. Mais tell me, is it smoked before selling or sold fresh like this?
People always mistake tatashe for standard bell pepper but the pointed tip and thin skin make all the difference when you are deseeding for buka stew. If you don't scrape out the inner white membrane thoroughly it gives a bitter taste to the whole pot sha.
Herh, the pointed shape is what tricks everyone oo! Over here people just grab any sweet red pepper from the market thinking it will do the same thing. But tatashe has that subtle heat behind the sweetness that normal sweet pepper misses completely chale.