COPPERKatapa recipe
Cassava leaves pounded and simmered with ground peanuts and coconut milk.
Ingredients
- 500 g cassava leaves
- 150 g ground peanuts
- 400 ml coconut milk
- 1 onion
- 3 clove garlic
- 100 g dried shrimp
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
How to make Katapa
- Strip 500 g of young cassava leaves from their stems and wash them well.
- Pound the leaves in a mortar until they break down into a coarse green paste. This is what gives the dish its texture.
- Bring the pounded leaves to a simmer in 500 ml of water with a little salt, and cook for about 30 minutes.
- Sauté 1 chopped onion and 3 crushed garlic cloves in oil until soft, then stir them into the leaves.
- Add 150 g of ground peanuts and stir until the stew thickens.
- Pour in 400 ml of coconut milk and simmer gently for 15 minutes more, stirring so it does not catch.
- Add dried or fresh shrimp in the last five minutes if you have them.
- Serve with nsima or rice.
What is Katapa?
Katapa is a traditional dish from Malawi, simmered in one pot, and takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes from start to finish. It is built around cassava leaves, coconut milk and ground peanuts. The recipe below uses 8 ingredients and is written out step by step.
How long does Katapa take?
At 75 minutes it is quicker than 70% of the 586 dishes in Copper's atlas. Copper's atlas has 6 dishes built on cassava leaves. The method runs to 8 steps, the longest being 30 minutes.
Any tips for making Katapa?
Pound the cassava leaves to a coarse paste, which gives the dish its texture, and stir once the coconut milk is in so it does not catch.
How Katapa compares
Ground peanuts appears in no other dish in the atlas.
Cooked with the same thing elsewhere
Other traditional dishes built on coconut milk, from other countries.
- Nasi lemak 🇧🇳 Brunei Darussalam
- Satay 🇧🇳 Brunei Darussalam
- Moqueca 🇧🇷 Brazil
- Rice and beans 🇧🇿 Belize
- Callaloo soup 🇩🇲 Dominica
- Sancoche 🇩🇲 Dominica
Copper documents Malawi alongside 197 other countries. Every recipe is free to read, with the full ingredient list and every step.