Isombe Recipe
Not only is Isombe delicious, but it's also very nutritious. Made with cassava leaves, palm oil and peanut sauce it's absolutely scrumptious with any starch! You can add meat or keep it vegan.
Ingredients
- 1 kg cassava leaves (Pounded)
- 1 package spinach
- 4 green onions or leak, chopped
- 2 green peppers
- ¼ litre palm oil (high-quality)
- 4-5 serving spoons ground nuts
- 3 Magi cubes
- 3 beef spice cubes
- Salt – to taste
- 2 litres water
Instructions
- In a pot, cover the cassava leaves with cold water and bring to a boil. Then strain the water out, and bring it back to the pot and boil for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
- Prepare the other vegetables, cutting them in small pieces and add to the pot. Mix and boil for another 15 minutes.
- Add the palm oil and the ground nuts and keep stirring to avoid it sticking on the pot which will lead it to burn.
- Season with salt and the other spices.
- Reduce the heat to minimum and simmer for 30 min to 1 hour.
- Serve over rice, ubugari or your preferred main dish.
Notes
- Prepare Isombe Properly: Eating raw or incorrectly prepared cassava can lead to severe side effects, due to the naturally-occurring cyanide present in raw cassava leaves.
- The leaves matter: Be sure of the quality buy from the market. Market sometimes adds some rough parts of the leaves that make it time-consuming to cook.
- Spinach is Key: It balances out the bitterness, do not skip this at whatever cost!
- Buy Quality Palm Oil and shake it to make sure you don’t only use the upper oil.
- Do not rush the first hour of boiling, this is where you get rid of the grassy unpleasant taste.
- If you would like, add some captain fish fillet: to add this, boil it in another pot with some spices, and add it to the isombe during the last 20 minutes; mackerel fish is another wonderful alternative.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!