THE TASTIEST WEST AFRICAN BEANS YOU NEED TO TRY

Bambara nuts also known as Bambara beans, Congo Goober,

Earth Pea, Hog Peanut or Ground Bean originates from West Africa by the Bambara people of southern Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Senegal. Bambara beans are also cultivated in the southern part of Africa and can be used in making dips and beverages.

When cooked Bamabara Beans has a creamier and nutty taste in comparison to any other beans. It’s a must try ingredient and recipe which is readily available in most African grocers. A perfect reason to visit and support their business. 

If you own an African grocer in the diaspora please leave comments below.

Also leave comments below on how you call Bambara beans in your local dialect.

INGREDIENTS 

250g of Bambara nuts or beans (readily available in most African grocers)

3 litres of water (use 1.5 litres to simmer the beans and discard, as shown in the recipe video)

4 Bay leaves

5 cloves

4 whole dried red chillies (you can use any fresh chillies you have available)

4 whole African nutmegs (substitute by using a pinch of grated Nutmeg)

30g of sliced fresh Ginger

1 tablespoonful of Jaggery or Brown sugar

5 Grains of Selim (Hwentia)

4 tablespoonfuls of Organic Cold presses Coconut oil 

Optional 10g of Basil for garnishing

Salt and Pepper to taste 

METHOD 

This is best served with Tatale (Ripened Plantain pancake). Traditional recipe coming up next.

Watch how to prepare this incredible West African Vegetarian dish below;

Don’t forget to subscribe, try the recipe, leave comments with your feedback and share. All photos, recipes and videos are by the owner of this blog.

MAFE (A SENEGALESE PEANUT OR GROUNDNUT STEW RECIPE)

Western Africa is made up of 16 countries and each country inhabits different tribes, cultures and food. The beautiful thing about Western Africa (when it comes to food) is the similarity in ingredients and differences in taste and cooking methods.

Today I’m inspired by the Senegalese Peanut or Groundnut stew known as Mafe.

In Ghana and Togo they have something similar called Groundnut soup which has a nutty and creamy flavour, whereby the Senegalese Mafe stew has a nutty, caramelised and tangy flavour. The consistency of each dish also heightens their differences with the similar ingredient of Groundnut or Peanut paste.

This recipe used fish sauce (which is readily available in most supermarkets across the UK) for that umami flavour, however in the absence of that you can use either any dried salted fish or Dawadawa (fermented locust beans.

Use the remaining oil for browning your meat for this dish.

I served the dish with the steamed Waakye leaf infused Jasmine rice (recipe is available on my YouTube channel, ‘Ndudu by Fafa’).

Let’s start!

INGREDIENTS 

2 tablespoonfuls of Peanut butter or Groundnut paste

2 large Lamb shanks or your preferred meat

5 chopped Green chillies

1 Habanero chilli

4 large fresh Tomatoes 

2 tablespoonfuls of Tomato purée 

2 large peeled and sliced Onions

8 tablespoonfuls of Coconut oil (use half for roasting your potatoes and remaining half for browning the meat£

8 cloves of Garlic

20g of Ginger

2 tablespoonfuls of Fish sauce or Lemon juice (substitute - half a teaspoon of Dawadawa or 10g of dried salted Fish)

150g of peeled Potatoes cut into chunks 

750ml of water 

Salt and pepper to taste 

Watch how to prepare this incredible dish below;

Don’t forget to subscribe, try the recipe and share with your family and friends.

All photos, recipes and videos are by the owner of this blog.