Isombe recipe

Cassava leaves pounded to a pulp and boiled long and uncovered, then stewed with eggplant, palm oil, peanut and smoked fish.

2 hours and 20 minutesmedium11 ingredients

Ingredients

• 500 g cassava leaves
• 4 tbsp palm oil
• 1 eggplant
• 4 tbsp peanut butter
• 200 g smoked fish
• 1 onion
• 4 clove garlic
• 1 leek
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 chilli pepper
• 1 tsp salt

How to make Isombe

1. Strip 500 g of young cassava leaves from their stems and pound them in a mortar until they are a coarse green pulp. If you cannot pound them, buy frozen pounded cassava leaves from an African grocer; chopping them with a knife will not give the right texture.
2. Put the pounded leaves in a pot with 1.5 litres of water and boil them uncovered for at least 45 minutes to 1 hour. Leaving the pot open is not optional: it lets the hydrocyanic acid in raw cassava leaves evaporate. Never shorten this step.
3. Meanwhile dice 1 large eggplant, 1 onion, 1 leek and 2 tomatoes, and crush 4 garlic cloves.
4. Heat 4 tablespoons of red palm oil in a second pot until it thins out, then soften the onion, leek and garlic in it for 8 minutes.
5. Add the tomato and eggplant and cook 10 minutes, until the eggplant collapses.
6. Tip the boiled cassava leaves with their remaining liquid into this pot and stir.
7. Stir in 4 tablespoons of peanut butter loosened with a little hot water, 200 g of flaked smoked fish, 1 chopped chilli and 1 teaspoon of salt.
8. Simmer uncovered for another 30 to 45 minutes, stirring often and topping up with water, until the stew is thick and dark green.
9. Serve with rice, ugali or plantains.

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