Spread the love of cooking

Ndolè is often described as the quintessential Cameroonian national dish. So, anyone who has Cameroonian friends has almost certainly heard of Ndolè, or even better, eaten it.

Ndolè is delicious, but fully appreciating it takes time, care, and patience. One thing I can assure you: it's all worth it in the end.

In my opinion, the difficulty lies in the cleaning process of the Ndolè leaves. I remember what it was like when I was a child. It felt like it took a whole day until we were finished with the preparation. So we always prepared larger quantities at once and froze or dried them, so that all the effort would be worthwhile for several meals.

First, the leaves must be carefully picked individually from the stalks. Then, they are finely chopped. Next, they are placed in a pot of hot water with rock salt. The leaves are then boiled until they are soft. Now, they are removed from the hot water using a sieve and quenched in cold water. If the ndolé leaves are still bitter after this, the process is repeated with rock salt until the ndolé tastes sweet. Normally, one or two repetitions are sufficient. Ultimately, it depends on the quality and the harvest season of the ndolé leaves. Young leaves are easier to clean than older leaves, just as those from the rainy season are less bitter than those from the dry season, and so on.

I am all the happier that nowadays I can simply buy (almost) ready-to-cook Ndolè, what a blessing!

I've already posted a recipe for Ndolè here, the classic version. Today, I'm sharing the veggie version, without any added ingredients. Some of my fellow countrymen will probably stone me for this—Ndolè without meat/fish? But vegetarians should also be able to enjoy Ndolè. So, "Ndolè goes Veggie.".

I hope you have fun cooking it!

Ingredients

300g Ndolè Ready to cook

300g Raw Peanuts without Skin

250g mushrooms

3 onions

8 cloves of garlic

1 pinch of pepper

Optional : fresh Scotch Bonnet or chili pepper

2-3cm large ginger

125ml cooking oil

Water

Salt

preparation

Clean the peanuts and bring them to a boil with plenty of water, then cook for another 30 minutes until the peanuts are soft.

Then remove from the hot water, rinse with cold water and let drain

Peel or clean the onions, ginger, and garlic cloves. Roughly chop three onions and place them in a blender along with the ginger, garlic, and peanuts, along with a little water. Blend into a paste

Put about 100ml of cooking oil in a pot, add half of a finely chopped onion and salt, and fry until the onions are translucent.

Add the peanut puree and then a little water, turn down the heat, mix well until a homogeneous, thick consistency is achieved.

Add a little water if needed and simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes, until the peanut sauce is slightly darker in color

Now gradually add the ready-to-cook Ndolè to the peanut sauce, stirring occasionally, and pay attention to the color and consistency of the resulting Ndolè.

Optionally, add 2 Scotch bonnets to the Ndolè and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Taste the whole thing before it comes out of the oven and add more salt or seasoning if necessary.

Some like it when the ndolè leaves dominate, while others prefer the peanuts to be clearly visible. To each their own.

Now carefully clean the mushrooms with a damp kitchen paper and divide them into 2 or leave them whole if you prefer.

Finely chop the second half of the onions as well, if you haven't already done so.

Add the remaining cooking oil to a pan with the mushrooms, onion, salt and a pinch of pepper, and sauté the mushrooms and onions until golden brown.

Arrange the contents of the pan together with the Ndolè on a plate and serve with Bobolo, fried or steamed yellow plantains

The whole thing as a video

Et voilà! Bon appétit!