Ndole recipe

Vernonia leaves boiled and rinsed several times to tame their bitterness, then bound in a thick peanut sauce with beef and dried shrimp.

2 hours and 10 minutesmedium10 ingredients

Ingredients

• 500 g bitterleaf
• 250 g raw peanuts
• 100 g dried shrimp
• 500 g beef
• 1 onion
• 3 clove garlic
• 100 ml peanut oil
• 1 fresh chili pepper
• 1 stock cube
• 2 tsp salt

How to make Ndole

1. Wash 500 g of bitterleaf, boil it with a spoon of coarse salt, drain, change the water and boil again. Repeat at least twice more until only a background bitterness is left; this is the step that makes the dish, and skipping it makes it inedible.
2. Boil 250 g of raw peanuts for 15 minutes, drain, then grind them to a smooth paste with a little water.
3. Simmer 500 g of cubed beef with 1 chopped onion, 2 tsp of salt and 1 stock cube in 500 ml of water for 40 minutes, and keep the broth.
4. Stir the peanut paste into the broth and cook 20 to 25 minutes, stirring often, until it thickens and loses its raw taste.
5. Add 100 g of dried shrimp and 3 crushed garlic cloves and cook 10 more minutes so the shrimp rehydrate and give up their flavour.
6. Squeeze the leaves dry, chop them coarsely and stir them in with 1 chopped chili, then simmer 15 minutes.
7. Pour 100 ml of peanut oil over the pot off the boil and stir it through; the sauce should be thick, dark and glossy.
8. Serve with fried ripe plantains, cassava or miondo. Spinach is not a substitute for bitterleaf, since the bitterness is the point of the dish.

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