One-Pot African Berbere Plantain and Spinach Stew

This one-pot plantain spinach stew features plantain and spinach slowly simmered in berbere-spiced palm oil sauce to create a complexly flavoured stew.

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One item that is not in short supply in my kitchen is Tupperware. I have amassed a vast collection comprising different shapes, colours and sizes since the kids were born. And I’ll usually have a few in the refrigerator, always with the kids’ leftovers. I say leftovers but what I really want to say are cast-offs! It’s typically the bits in an earlier lunch/s’vieri/s’znuni/dinner that the kids couldn’t be bothered enough to eat.

Some things, like sweet red peppers (called peperoni in Switzerland) never make the Tupperware. Much too loved to be discarded or abandoned in an unworthy Tupperware, tucked away at the back of the refrigerator. I can see you wondering what the relationship between a sausage and a garden vegetable is.., and I have often wondered myself, but hold that thought for a moment..

I had a few of those much-too-loved-to-be-relegated-to-a-tupperware vegetables myself. And I bet for most Nigerian children growing up in the 70s and 80s, plantain would have featured very high on that list. It certainly did for me. The natural sugar in plantain would have had a big part to play in our love, as children for plantain, especially when it was cubed, spiced and fried. Think Kelewele for breakfast.. I’d give an arm….

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For parents, it was probably a way to keep us little monsters content and feed our little sugar gremlins in a nutritious way , because

Like the proverbial cat, for whom there exists more ways than one to skin, there are many ways to prepare plantain. I grew up on Dodo, and have experimented with frittatas and mashed plantains. But this One-Pot Plantain and Spinach Stew is my adaptation of a one-pot Nigerian plantain dish.

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And it just works! Because the Berbere spice and Palm oil combination lend a set of deep and complex flavours to a classic dish that was already great on its own.

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One Pot Berbere Plantain & Spinach Stew

Print Recipe

Add to Meal Plan: Select Course to Add: BreakfastLunchDinner This recipe has been added to your Meal Plan

Servings

4 people

Servings 4 people

One Pot Berbere Plantain & Spinach Stew Print Recipe Add to Meal Plan: Select Course to Add: BreakfastLunchDinner This recipe has been added to your Meal Plan Servings 4 people Servings 4 people

Ingredients

• 2 plantains approx 300g
• 1 onion approx 100g
• 2 garlic cloves
• 20 g parsley
• 3 tbsp palm oil
• 350 ml tomato passata
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• 1 scotch bonnet pepper de-seeded
• 4 hard boiled eggs
• 1 tbsp berbere spice
• 300 g baby spinach

Units:MetricUS Imperial

Instructions

1. Peel the plantain, and cut each plantain into 6 cylindrical sections. Set aside
2. Heat a dutch oven and when hot, add the palm oil. Leave for 1 - 2 minutes until the palm oil is completely liquefied and hot.
3. Add the chopped onions and garlic and fry for 3 - 5 minutes until golden, stirring frequently to prevent burning.
4. Add the tomato passata, stock cube, berbere spice, salt and scotch bonnet pepper. Taste ad adjust the seasoning if required.
5. Add the chopped parsley, plantain, spinach. Reduce the heat to low-medium, and simmer covered for 45 minutes until the plantain is soft.

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Laters,

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Emem..xo

Emem

 

Afro-fusion Food Lover.
Sustainable Food Advocate.
Completely nuts about Avocado.