Angola: vegan calulu

It’s time for our first stop in Central Africa. Today we visit Angola and cook a vegan version of calulu, a filling stew with red palm oil, okra, eggplant and tomatoes. Read on to learn a bit about Angolan cuisine and the influences from Brazil and Portugal or jump straight to the recipe.

Angolan cuisine

Angola is a country on the west coast of Central Africa and used to be a Portuguese colony until it gained its independence in 1975 ​[1]​. This colonialism has contributed many Portuguese influences in Angolan cooking as well as Angolan influences in Portugal. Just across the Atlantic ocean from Angola, lies Brazil, another former Portuguese colony. Frequent interactions (trade with slaves and goods) has led to a significant cultural exchange between the two former colonies, not least in the cuisines of both nations.

Angolan cuisine uses a lot of fresh vegetables, such as okra, tomato, eggplant, peanuts and cassava leaves ​[2]–[5]​. Starches include tubers like cassava and yam, grains like rice, millet and sorghum, as well as plantain. Fish and other sea animals are important food items, in particular along the coast. Beans and land animals like chickens, pigs, and goats also find their way into the Angolan kitchen.

Angolan dishes

Angola’s national dish is muamba de galinha – chicken cooked with okra and tomatoes in palm oil ​[2], [3]​. The word kizaca means both cassava leaves and is used as the name of a simple side dish where cassava leaves are cooked with peanuts to create a creamy stew ​[4]​. Mufete is a full meal with grilled fish served with an onion and tomato salsa, beans and boiled cassava, yams and plantain ​[3]​.

Cassava is an important staple and is often turned into funje or funge, a type of thick cassava porridge made by whisking cassava flour into boiling water ​​[6]​, very similar to the side dish fufu in West Africa and the Caribbean. In fact, the cassava flour is even called fufu in Angola. Angolan funje is often made from cassava flour and water and served as a food and utensil in one. Other ways to serve cassava is boiled or in dishes like farofa (below) and chikuanga – a bread like dish where cassava is fermented for 48 hours and then pounded and steamed in banana leaves ​[7]​.

Brazilian influences can be seen in dishes such as feijoada, a Brazilian mashed beans dish with meat crumbles, and farofa, toasted cassava flour with fried onions ​[4], [5]​. The Portuguese influence is manifested in dishes like cabidela, where animals like chickens and goats are cooked in their own blood or the still not vegan but a bit nicer cocada amarela, a coconout pudding served as dessert ​[8]​.

Vegan calulu

Calulu, or calulu de peixe as it is more often called, is an Angolan stew with red palm oil, okra, greens and eggplant ​[2], [9]​. Like many other Angolan dishes, it has strong ties to Brazil and may have originated there ​[10]​. As the full name implies, it is a fish stew and usually contains either dried or fresh fish but meat contatining versions exist (dropping the de peixe suffix). In this vegan version, fish is simply omitted but it could be replaced with some seaweed for flavour and a stringy plant, like heart of palm or jackfruit as a texture element.

To make Angolan Calulu, the “layering” technique seems to be the most popular method ​[11]–[13]​. Here, all the ingredients are placed in n unheated pot, carefully stacked in several layers. For instance, placing green leaves first, followed by onion, tomato, fish etc . As with so many other traditional dishes, everyone has their own favourite way to make it and some people forego the layering for a more simple approach where the vegetables are fried in a pot, starting with onion and adding the rest as the veggies finish cooking ​[14]​. Or a combined method, where onions and some veggies are sauteed and leafy greens and fish are steamed on top ​[15]–[17]​.

While the method of layering appears standardized, the ingredients that go in are anything but. Onion, garlic, chili (usually scotch bonnet), tomato, okra and some leafy green, such as sweet potato leaves, kale or spinach appear to be common to all (as is fish in the case of the de peixe version). But the supporting vegetables vary. Sometimes eggplant ​[15]–[17]​ goes in the pot, sometimes zucchini ​[18]​, or bell pepper ​[16]​.

Red palm oil

Regardless of these minor variations, red palm oil always goes in the pot. As we learned while “visiting” Ghana, red palm oil is a staple in West African cooking ​[19]​ but is also common in Central African cuisines, such as Angolan cooking. The red palm oil is extracted from the same fruit as the white/colourless palm oil used by the food industry to make products more solid. But red palm oil is used directly in cooking, rather than as an additive in processed foods. It is liquid at room temperature and adds special flavour to the food. Some have described the flavour as slightly carrot-y ​[20]​ (it does contain a lot of carotene, the compound giving carrots their distinct colour), but I don’t get that. Maybe a slight smokiness.

Conclusion

This Angolan vegan calulu was quite interesting to try but sadly it did not develop as much flavour as I had hoped. It is a fish stew and omitting the fish without adding e.g. seaweed or flax oil might not do the dish justice. In my original test of this dish, I found it to be too oily so I cut the amount of oil in half in the recipe below (the original recipe use quite a lot of oil).

Angolan vegan calulu

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Vegan calulu

This traditional Angolan stew is made by simmering ocra, egg plant and tomatoes with red palm oil.

Course dinner

Cuisine Angolan, Central African

Keyword cassava, eggplant, ocra, red palm oil, stew

Servings 4

Ingredients

Calulu

• 200 g kale, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• ½-1 scotch bonnet, cut in half, seeds removed or sub for other chili
• 2 bay leaves
• 200-250 eggplant, chopped
• 2-3 tomatoes, fresh, coarsely chopped
• 5-10 pcs ocra
• 40 mL red palm oil
• salt, to taste

Instructions

• Layer the vegetables in a large pot. Start with the chopped kale, then add onion and garlic, scotch bonnet, bay leaves, eggplant, chopped tomatoes, and finally the ocra. Cut the ocra into 3 cm pieces just before adding it.
• Sprinkle the vegetables with salt and drizzle over the red palm oil.
• Heat the pot over a medium heat. Use a lid. The vegetables will release water and start to steam and finally boil. If you apply too much heat, they risk burning before releasing enough water to cook. You can add a little water to help the process get going.
• Simmer for 30-50 minutes.

References