Pounded Yam & Egusi+Ewuro Stew
A VEGETARIAN WEST AFRICAN SUPERFOOD ODYSSEY
I'm getting back on my suedo-keto diet tomorrow. Let's just say it's been a very festive time, nutritionally speaking, in the past few weeks and things need to be brought back to balance. To celebrate this transition, and to end the festive period with a bang, I had some very high carb west African food. I won't be "allowed" this meal during my self-imposed readjustment because of the seriously high amount of carbohydrates it packs.
See , this was the food of warriors, farmers and labourers of old. They could eat this stuff with impunity, even for breakfast, since by midday they would have already burnt the whole thing from physical activity. Back in those days people would walk long distances to get to their farms, till all day, and carry heavy loads back home. People would climb, run, hunt, heave, throw, e.t.c., so this was the perfect food for them. It fuelled all that activity.
These days, not so much. The average West African only gets about 10% of the physical exercise their ancestors got, but still eat the same food, even in higher quantities. Besides, they now mix it with the even more deadly western (American) diet full of sugar, refined grains and chemicals. It's no wonder diseases like diabetes and heart disease, which were unheard of two centuries ago, are on the increase in the region.
Anyhow the stuff is delicious and, if not eaten in excess, is actually very healthy. Every ingredient used is natural, plant based even, and traditional. Yep, we can get all that stuff in London. In fairness, the ingredients are not as fresh as you can get them in Ghana or Nigeria, but fresh enough :)
Behold the mighty Pounded Yam and Egusi and Bitter Leaf "soup". It's not really a "soup", it's a "stew", but that's how it's referred to in west Africa. May "soups" are actually either stews or sauces. An example of a "soup" that's actually a soup is the popular "Pepper Soup", but that's a different meal for a different day.
A. Pounded Yam. This is basically boiled yam pounded into a dough. Traditionally it's prepared in a large pounding mortar and pestle. I don't have that equipment so I "pounded" the yam in a large glass blown with a dough roller. Works for small quantities.
B. Palm Oil. This is the main oil used in making the sauce. This is the natural, organic, stuff made from heating palm kernel fruit and harnessing the oil, not the chemical stuff in soap and cosmetics or the garbage used as fillers in junk food over here. It's not the cholesterol nightmare you may be thinking of. This is the healthy stuff consumed for thousands of years prior to the chemical processing of it.
C. Bitter Leaf. It's called "Ewuro" in Yoruba and some other languages. The Latin binomial nomenclature is Vernonia Amygdalina a leafy shrub native to tropical Africa. Ewuro is considered a superfood in many African cultures and is even used in herbal medicine. It is a very bitter plant, hence the name, but with a sweet aftertaste. It has been shown to help regulate blood sugar, hence diabetes, and also has anti-cancer properties apparently. It's kind of an acquired taste. Most people eating it for the first time would hate the taste, but if you grew up eating it, you'd probably love it.
D. Tomato. This is one of the ingredients used to make the "red sauce". Other ingredients include onions, bell peppers, chilli peppers, garlic, oil, salt, seasoning and water. There is usually some kind of animal protein in the sauce - beef, chicken or fish, but I didn't have any of that in there.
E. Locust Bean. It's called "Iru" in Yoruba and some other languages. The botanical name is Parkia Biglobosa and is used in the case as an aromatic seasoning. Like the bitter leaf above, Iru is also a superfood known to have multiple medicinal benefits. Blood pressure regulation, oral health, cholesterol regulation, promotion of good eyesight are amongst the recognised benefits of Locust Beans. Unfortunately this amazing superfood is being replaced by processed chemical garbage like Maggi Cubes (Swiss) and, even worse, Ajinomoto (Japanese), the latter of which contains Potassium Chloride!
F. Isapa. This is the Yoruba name for "Roselle Leaf" or "Hibiscus Leaf". They are plucked when they're still shoots and not full bloomed. When cooked they taste almost like dried fish or even meat. (Wait until western vegans get a hold of this 😅 🍀). It is in fact used for that purpose - a fish/meat replacement. It is also a highly nutritions food, of superfood status, packed with a whopping list of nutrients including Vitamins A, B1, B2, B9, Calcium, Potassium, Magnesium and Iron! It's indeed a vegan superfood, especially due to the B vitamins Thiamin, Riboflavin and Folic Acid which are often hard to find outside animal proteins. Isapa is also used to make a very popular drink that's common to many African cultures. It's known as "Zobo" (Nigeria, Niger, Benin), "Zobolo" (Ghana,Burkina Faso) or "Bissap" (Senegal, Mali, Gambia, Guinea). As you can imagine, it's a low-carb but highly nutritious drink. Nature's multi-vitamin drink.
G. Egusi. This is the Yoruba name for Cucurbitaceae Seeds (usually melon seeds, but could also be pumpkin or guard). They are dried, peeled and blended into granules and usually cooked with dried fish or shrimps into a clumpy sauce that would be mixed with the red sauce mentioned earlier, or a vegetable stew of some kind. I haven't used any fish or shrimps since it was going to be mixed with the hibiscus leaves and bitter leaf stew above. The seeds themselves are already very high in protein. Health benefits of Egusi include blood sugar regulation (you see the pattern?), blood lipid regulation, healthy hair and nail growth promotion, and antibacterial and antioxidant properties. They basically keep you looking younger :)
Thoughts
As you can see from the ingredients above, this could easily be called a vegetarian (maybe even vegan?) meal. That's the thing with many West African dishes, the ones not specifically based on meat or fish, can very easily be made veggie by not adding meat and opting for plant based proteins like Isapa and Egusi.
Also many of these ingredients, when made the traditional way, are very nutritious to the point of being medicinal. Someone very wise once said "let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food", or something to that effect. This was very true in the olden days in Africa. Yes, the giant carb dough delivered a lot of blood sugar but the effect was immediately counteracted by rigorous physical activity and blood sugar moderating ingredients like Iru, Ewuro and Isapa. There was balance.
It goes without saying that I didn't get that much physical activity after eating this. The opposite was in fact the case partly due to the windy and rainy conditions outside. My pancreas evidently sprang into action by producing the insulin to drag the sugar out of my blood stream, some into my muscles and some converted to fatty acids for my growing adipose tissue, leading to the resulting dip in blood sugar (an overshoot) - resulting in fatigue and ultimately a nice post lunch nap.
Peace & Love,
Adé