Vegetable and Fruit Dishes, Soups and Sauces

1Keeping the goodness in vegetables

• Wash vegetables whole, before cutting, so vitamins do not wash out of the cut surfaces.
• Cut them just before cooking; cut surfaces lose vitamin C in air.
• Cook in a little water, for a short time, with a lid on; use the cooking water in soups and sauces.
• Serve at once; keeping vegetables hot for a long time destroys vitamins.

Cassava leaves are the exception to "cook for a short time": they must be pounded and cooked for a long time to remove their natural cyanide-forming substances.

2Recipe 1: isombe (serves 4)

Isombe is a Rwandan stew of pounded cassava leaves, usually finished with groundnut (peanut) paste and eaten with rice, ugali, sweet potato or beans.

Ingredients: 600 g pounded cassava leaves; 1 small aubergine (about 200 g), diced; 1 onion, chopped; 2 tomatoes, chopped; 2 cloves garlic; 750 ml water or stock; 40 g groundnut paste; 1 tablespoon oil; salt.

Method:

1. Put the pounded leaves and water in a large pan and bring to the boil. Leave the lid off for the first part of cooking so the gases released from the leaves can escape.
2. Simmer for at least 1 hour, stirring often and adding a little water if it becomes dry.
3. Add the aubergine, onion, garlic and tomatoes; cook for 20 minutes more.
4. Stir in the groundnut paste mixed with a little of the hot liquid, add the oil and salt, and cook gently for 10 minutes.

3Recipe 2: amaranth with tomato (serves 4)

Wash 2 bunches of amaranth, strip the leaves and chop them. Fry 1 sliced onion in 1 tablespoon of oil until soft, add 2 chopped tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes, then add the amaranth and a pinch of salt. Stir for 3 to 5 minutes, just until the leaves wilt and are bright green. Serve at once.

4Recipe 3: fruit salad (serves 6)

Peel and dice 1 small pineapple, 2 mangoes and 1 small pawpaw; slice 3 bananas; scoop out the pulp of 4 passion fruits and stir it through, with the juice of 1 orange. The acid in the passion fruit and orange stops the banana turning brown. Keep covered and cool; serve within a few hours.

5Soups

A soup is a liquid dish made by simmering vegetables, meat, fish or pulses in water or stock. A stock is a flavoured liquid made by simmering bones or vegetables in water. Soups can be clear (thin, with pieces), thick (thickened with flour or potato) or puréed (the vegetables are mashed or blended into the liquid).

Vegetable soup (serves 4): fry 1 chopped onion in 1 tablespoon of oil; add 2 diced carrots, 2 diced Irish potatoes, 200 g shredded cabbage and 2 chopped tomatoes; add 1.2 litres of water or stock and a little salt; simmer for 20 to 25 minutes until the potatoes are soft. Mash some of the potato into the liquid to thicken it.

6Sauces

A sauce is a thickened, flavoured liquid served with food to add moisture, flavour and colour.

• Tomato sauce (for beans, fish, rice): fry 1 onion in oil, add 4 chopped tomatoes and a little salt, simmer for 10 minutes until thick.
• White sauce (for vegetables, fish, eggs) uses a roux, equal weights of fat and flour cooked together: melt 25 g margarine, stir in 25 g flour and cook for 1 minute, then add 250 ml milk a little at a time, stirring all the time, and simmer for 2 minutes until smooth and thick. Adding the milk slowly and stirring prevents lumps.

Worked example: scaling isombe

Question: Scale the isombe recipe (for 4) to feed 10 people.

Solution: Scale factor = 10 ÷ 4 = 2.5. Cassava leaves 600 × 2.5 = 1 500 g (1.5 kg); aubergine 200 × 2.5 = 500 g; water 750 × 2.5 = 1 875 ml (about 1.9 litres); groundnut paste 40 × 2.5 = 100 g. Onions 2.5, so use 3; tomatoes 5; garlic 5 cloves. Cooking time does not scale: the leaves still need at least 1 hour, but a larger pot takes longer to reach the boil.

Practice