Burkina Faso: vegan babenda

From our last stop in Japan, we’re now back in West Africa. This week we visit Burkina Faso and cook vegan babenda, a simple one-pot rice dish with leafy greens. The babenda becomes very interesting thanks to soumbala, or fermented locust beans, an important flavour component across most of West Africa. Read on to learn about more about Burkinabe cuisine and soumbala or jump straight to the recipe.

Burkinabe cuisine

Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, just north of Ghana which we’ve visited two years ago. Burkinabe cuisine has very strong West African traditions with only minimal influences from the previous French colonial rule ​[1]​. Grains like rice, millet, sorghum, and corn are common along with starchy tubers like potatoes, sweet potatoes and yams ​[1], [2]​. Black-eyed peas and a large variety of vegetables such as okra, eggplant, plantain, tomatoes, leeks, French green beans, and pumpkin are used in the Burkinabe kitchen ​[1], [2]​. Leafy greens like spinach, Swiss chard and kale are also important. Due to the low average income in Burkina Faso, meat is a rarity ​[1]​. Food is flavoured with chili peppers like Scotch bonnet, peanuts, Maggie cubes (MSG heavy Nestlé stock cubes), allspice and fermented locust beans called soumbala or dawadawa (see below). Kan Kan Kan is a local spice mix prepared by grinding peanuts, chili peppers, allspice, and Maggie cubes.

Burkinabe dishes

There are are many West African dishes found in Burkina Faso, such as riz gras (literally fat rice), a rice dish popular across the region and known by many names such as jollof rice in Nigeria and Ghana and thieboudienne in Senegal ​[3]​. Another popular dish is mafe, a peanut stew similar to the domoda we made when visiting The Gambia ​[4]​. On the streetfood scene you will find balls of ground black-eyed peas and leafy greens steamed to create yoabeka ​[5]​ and bicycle chicken, a barbecued chicken named after the vendors’ means of transportation (similar to how Sichuan dan dan mian, “pole noodles”, are named after the vendors food carrying contraption ​[6]​).

Stews are often eaten in Burkina Faso and are usually accompanied by fufu or tô ​[1]–[3]​. Fufu is popular throughout West Africa and other parts of Africa. It is made by pounding starchy plants like yam, cassava and/or plantain with hot water to make a stiff porridge-like dish ​[7]​​. Tô is made in a similar manner but uses flour from corn, millet or sorghummixed with boiling water instead of pounding whole plants ​[1]​. Both fufu and tô are eaten as side dishes for stews and soups. Popular Burkinabe stews include ragout d’igname (yam stew), sauce gombo (an okra-based stew), and babenda, a one pot meal with rice and leafy greens ​[2], [8]​.

Babenda

Babenda is a popular burkinabe one-pot meal made from leafy greens and grains, most commonly rice. The dish develops funky, complex flavours from the addition of fermented locust beans and sometimes dried fish ​[1], [2]​.

Vegan babenda recipe

With a popular dish like babenda, it is no surprise that there are many recipes out there. The common denominator is that they use leafy greens, rice and peanuts. Some recipes use whole rice, some broken rice but most blend their rice with water to improve the mushiness ​[9]​. The greens used vary greatly and I’ve found recipes using spinach ​[10]–[13]​, Swiss chard ​[11]​, kale​[14]​, dandelions ​[14]​ and amaranth leaves ​[9], [15]​. For seasoning, some recipes add a chili ​[9], [10], [13]​ and/or onion or scallions ​[9], [10], [14], [15]​. One recipe adds tomatoes ​[15]​ but I only saw this once.

While some babenda recipes call for a few small, dried or smoked fish for flavour ​[11]–[13], [15]​, not all recipes use this so it seems safe to omit the fish to easily create a vegan babenda recipe without losing too much of the traditional dish. If you like, you can try adding a drop or two of liquid smoke.

The most interesting flavour element is the ingredient fermented locust beans, also known as soumbala, dawadawa and iru depending on who you talk to. This is used in many but not all of the recipes I found ​[10], [11], [13], [15]​. This ingredient is so interesting that I decided to write a little extra about it.

Fermented locust beans

Fermented locust beans are used extensively throughout West Africa to add depth of flavour to almost any dish. The fermented beans are known by many names depending on what ethnic group you ask. In Burkina Faso, the beans are often called soumbala or dawadawa ​[1]​, in Nigeria they go by the names ogiri, nere, and iru ​[16], [17]​ and in Senegal the beans are often called netetou ​[17]​.

The fermented locust beans are used in small quantities as a flavour agent and is as important as onion, chili and garlic in some regions ​[16]​. You can cook dishes without the fermented locust beans but they add a lot to a dish. Abena Offeh-Gyimah describes dawadawa as “[…] the kick to the party, I would even go as far as saying that it is the main character the show did not know it needed.” on their blog LivingTheAncestralWay.

Locust “beans” are actually seeds that come from the nere tree (parkia biglobosoa). They are found inside long, brown pods surrounded by yellow pulp ​[17]​. The sweet pulp is edible and can be used to make beverages and desserts or just be eaten as is ​[16]​. To ferment the seeds inside the pulp, they are first boiled to soften the shells which are then removed. The seeds are then boiled again and then fermented for 3 days. The seed mass is then salted and shaped into balls or discs and allowed to dry. (In the product I bought, the seeds came individually instead of as a mass.)

What to use instead of fermented locust beans?

I have seen fermented locust beans in many West African recipes during the lifetime of this blog but this was the first time I bought them. When opening the bag and taking deep whiff fills your nostrils with a strong smell with notes of dark chocolate, roasted coffee and mouldy cheese. Adding fermented locust beans to the dish dilutes the flavour quite a bit and you’re left with a funny background flavour. For cooking thieboudienne when visiting Senegal, I replaced netetou with miso to add some umami but now I don’t think this is the ideal replacement. You need something more pungent than miso. I think vegemite or marmite would be a better replacement or maybe an East Asian fermented bean sauce.

Conclusion

The Burkinabe vegan babenda turned out to be a hit. Very simple, filling and very interesting flavours. The texture reminded me quite a bit about the madrouba, another crushed rice dish, we recently made when visiting Oman in West Asia. The flavour is very different though and babenda gets a lot of complex funkiness thanks to the soumbala or fermented locust beans. I’m glad I finally pulled the trigger and bought a small bag. And I still have some left for next time a recipe calls for fermented locust beans.

Vegan babenda recipe

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Babenda

Babenda is a common Burkanabe stew made from leafy greens and grains such as broken rice. Fermented locust beans give the dish a unique flavour.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Burkinabe, West Africa

Keyword Fermentation, rice

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp roasted peanuts
• 2 tbsp fermented locust beans
• 150 mL rice
• 140 g or 1 bunch leafy greens, e.g. spinach
• 1-2 scallions
• ¼-½ scotch bonnet, or other chili to taste optional
• 2 tsp neutral oil optional
• ½ tsp salt to taste
• 400-500 mL water

Instructions

• Blend rice with a bit of the water. The rice grains should be roughly cut in half or smaller. Set aside (preserve the water)
• Blend peanuts with a bit of the water. The peanuts should be quite fine. Set aside (preserve the water)
• Grind the fermented locust beans. You can add water if needed. The beans should be about half size or smaller.
• Slice the scallion and tear the leaves into smaller chunks.
• Deseed the chili if you prefer.
• Add all ingredients to a large pot. Bring to a boil.
• Let simmer for ~20 minutes until the rice is mushy and has absorbed most of the water.

  Stir to avoid burning and add more water if needed. I ended up using 500 mL water in total (including the preserved water from blending).

References