Cassava leaves are leaves that are very easy to get, Central Africans usually use cassava leaves as ingredients for making soup, cassava leaf soup. Besides cassava, another name for the leaves of this tuber plant is saka-saka or pondu. Making soup from it is very easy and fast.
Cassava leaf soup is widely consumed by the people of Sierra Leone and Liberia, which are countries in Africa. While in the French-speaking country of Cameroon, this cassava leaf dish is disguised as Nwem. There is a simpler version which is made from fresh corn, palm oil, and does not use salt (Kwem sans sel).
I don’t like Kwem, especially the no-salt recipe, it doesn’t appeal to me at all. But when I tried Sierra Leone’s version of the cassava leaf soup recipe, wow, this is amazing, incredibly delicious. There are ingredients such as shrimp, meat, and there is also pasta, this is really very interesting and makes it a delicious food for me that I don’t get tired of tasting.
Cassava Leaf Soup, African Dish
This is an exotic food, this cassava leaf is not actually a soup but part of a stew recipe. It can be served with meat or with fish. If you like, you can use boneless basa fish, the deliciousness will certainly increase. But some Africans, cook cassava leaf soup using smoked fish, this fish will add to the delicious taste of cassava leaf soup dishes.
In addition to using fish, you can use a variety of meats including smoked turkey.
Also see: Can You Eat Turkey Bacon Raw?
In making cassava leaf soup, the collected cassava leaves are ground, in most shops in Africa, they freeze these milled leaves to make them last longer and can be used whenever they want. If you don’t find cassava leaves you can replace them with chopped spinach leaves, for a good consistency you should crush them in a food processor. This is a distinctive form of this African food.
After cooking, the way to enjoy cassava leaf soup is to pour it over rice. Enjoy! For more details, you can listen to the following recipe.
For nutritional information from cassava leaf soup, you can look at the following list. These nutrients depend on how much of the ingredients you use in cooking the soup.
Cassava Soup Nutrition Information
Calories: 382kcal (19%)| Protein: 34g (68%)| Iron: 4.3mg (24%) | Fat: 22g (34%)| Carbohydrates: 11g (4%)| Saturated Fat: 7g (44%)| Cholesterol: 119mg (40%)| Calcium: 80mg (8%)| Sodium: 192mg (8%)| Sugar: 1g (1%)| Potassium: 983mg (28%)| Vitamin A: 3125IU (63%)| Vitamin C: 67.7mg (82%).
Cassava Leaf Soup
Print RecipeIngredients
- 3 pounds of cassava leaves
- 1 pound beef, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 medium onion chopped
- ½ - 1 cup palm oil I used ½ palm oil and half canola oil
- 1/2 cup ground cray fish dried shrimps
- 4-5 tablespoon ground groundnuts peanut butter puree
- 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon or Maggie powder
- 1 scotch bonnet pepper 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
- 1/2 - 1 pound shrimp (optional)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Take a large saucepan and season the meat with salt, onion and Maggi (for a healthier you should not use Maggi), boil until tender, depending on the type of meat, and you should have 1/2 cup of stock
- Take out the spare beef and beef
- Heat the oil in a large, or medium saucepan, add the onions, prawns, sauté until fragrant, and add the beef or bacon.
- Stir in peanut butter or peanut paste, add about 1 cup broth and cook for about 5 minutes
- Add the drained cassava leaves, continue cooking for about 25 more minutes
- If you added, now add the prawns, cook again until they change color, maybe about 3 minutes.
- Adjust the Maggi seasoning (if you use Maggi), adjust the salt, make a thick soup with water and oil as desired.
- Serve while warm over rice.
Enjoy the cassava leaf soup!
