Senegal: vegan thieboudienne

For our virtual visit to Senegal, we cook a vegan thieboudienne or ceebu jën. This flavourful rice dish dish is the Senegal version of jollof rice, the immensely popular dish eaten in different versions across most of West Africa. Read on to learn a bit more about Senegalese cooking or jump straight to the recipe for vegan thieboudienne.

Senegalese cuisine

Senegalese cuisine combines traditional dishes from the Wolof people with influences from West African neighbours and former French colonialism. As a coastal country, the cuisine features fish as one of the main proteins along with chicken, cow and goat. Vegetables are traditional west African and Western European, with sweet potato, plantain, cassava and groundnuts side by side with cabbage and carrots. Apart from cassava and sweet potato, rice, fonio, millet and bread are popular sources of starch. Tomato, eggplant, peanuts, okra and legumes like black eyed peas are also common. Spices are plentiful and include scotch bonnet, bay leaves, curry powder, garlic, onion and fresh herbs.

The dishes enjoyed in Senegal are popular across the region and you will find dishes like maafe (a peanut sauce with meat), yassa (marinated chicken served with rice and plenty of fried onion), and domoda,the peanut and tomato based stew we made when we visited Gambia last year (a country completely enclosed by Senegal and the Atlantic Ocean) ​[1]–[3]​. You will also find more regional dishes such as ndambe, a spicy bean paste made from black-eyed peas seasoned with chili and garlic, often served on a French baguette as breakfast or streetfood ​[4]​. Another popular streetfood dish is fataya, deep fried triangular pastries filled with chicken yassa, french fries and fried eggs ​[5]​.

On the dessert table, you will find sombi, a rice pudding with coconut milk , cinq centimes (sugar cookies with peanutbutter), and glaced bananas, fresh bananas covered in mashed bananas mixed with sugar and heavy cream and sprinkled with candied fruits and nuts ​[3], [6]​.

Jollof rice

To say that Jollof rice is a popular dish in West Africa is a bit of an understatement ​[7]​. This dish eaten all across West Africa and different countries have their own version. Feelings have been known to rise when trying to determine who has the best jollof rice, see for instance #jollofwars on Instagram or the write-up by Quartz Africa (which includes the #Jollofgate scandal…).

The origin of the dish is a bit contested but usually attributed to the Jollof/Wolof people whose empire was centred around what is today Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania. From there it spread throughout West Africa through the trade network. People kidnapped, traded and transported to the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade brought the dish with them where it likely helped create or influence today’s jambalaya and gumbo ​[8]​.

Known by many names across the region, such as riz-au-gras (rice with fat), jollof, benachin and zaame, the theme is rice cooked in spicy tomato sauce with some protein. Variations occur in choice of vegetables (from none to many), spices used and what protein you pick ​[9]​. Further to the west in countries like Gambia and Senegal, fish is used while further east, toward Ghana and Nigeria, protein tends to be chicken, cow or goat. The type and amount of vegetables also vary across the region and can be almost no vegetables, or rely primarily on traditional West African staples or include plants typically associated with the European colonial powers such as cabbage and carrots. The type of rice used is also a point of discussion and can be broken rice, parboiled rice or jasmin rice. Spices vary in amount and type but often include scotch bonnet, ginger, garlic, bay leaves and curry powder, along with the famous Maggi cube (a Nestlé stock cube with plenty of MSG) ​[10]​.

To learn more about the culturally important jollof rice, visit vegan blogger Afia Amoako (The Canadian African) who has a great series about Jollof rice, including a post on how the dish varies across the region and the history of the dish.

Vegan thieboudienne or ceebu jën

Today, jollof rice in Senegal goes by the name ceebu jën or thieboudienne (rice with fish) and is widely held as Senegal’s national dish. The dish has its modern roots in 19th century St. Louis. The story has it that chef Penda Mbaye replaced barley with rice in a one-pot barley dish being made for the French governor ​[11]​. The dish was a success and thieboudienne was born ​[12], [13]​. Other Senegalese varieties include thiebou guerte (rice and peanuts), thiebou guinar (chicken) and thiebou yapp (beef) ​[11], [14]​.

In a traditional Senegal thieboudienne, whole fish is cut open and stuffed with herbs and spices and then fried and boiled with vegetables, primarily cabbage, carrot, eggplant and sweet potato ​[12], [15], [16]​The vegetables and fish are then removed and rice is added to the pot and cooked in the same liquid. The dish is usually seasoned with scotch bonnet and dried fish as well as nététou ​[11]​. Nététou, also known as sumbala or iru, is a dried, fermented paste made from the seeds of the nere tree ​[17]​. Its flavour is often compared to miso so in the recipe below, I made this replacement (as miso is far easier to find) ​[18]​. I replaced the fish with tofu fillets marinated and baked in a parsley and scotch bonnet paste.

Conclusion

This vegan thieboudienne, Senegal’s version of jollof rice, was a great dish. Flavourful, filling and with so many different vegetables, every bite was different. This was the first time I made tofu this way and it turned out quite well.

Vegan thieboudienne recipe

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Thieboudienne

This vegan thieboudienne or ceebu jën, Senegal's famous version of West African jollof rice comes with herb baked tofu instead of the traditional fish.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Senegalese, West Africa

Keyword rice, tofu

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 1 Egg plant
• 1 Onion, sliced
• 1-2 Scotch bonnet or habanero pepper
• ½ Bell pepper
• 1-2 Carrot
• 1 Small sweet potato
• ½ Small head of cabbage
• 800 mL Canned whole tomatoes
• 2 tbsp Tomato puré
• 1 tbsp Miso or nététou optional
• 3 bay leaves
• Vegetable stock
• 600 mL Rice Jasmin or basmati
• Lime slices, for serving

Herb baked tofu

• 1 block Tofu
• 1 bunch Parsley
• ½ Scotch bonnet or habanero pepper
• 3 cloves Garlic
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• ½ tsp salt, or to taste

Instructions

Herb baked tofu

• Blend parsley, scotch bonnet, garlic, salt and olive oil. Add a little water if necessary.
• Cut the tofu into fillets. Make a cut through the centre and leave the fillets attached at one edge, similar to a baguette (see photos).
• Put some of the blended parsley marinade into the cut slit of each fillet and place them in a baking tray, covering them (top and bottom) with the rest of the marinade.
• Marinade for 30+ minutes.
• Bake the tofu at 200C/400F for 20-30 min in the marinade, flipping the fillets 1-2 times during cooking. The marinade will dry into the fillets and they will start to brown.

Rice and vegetables

• Cut the vegetables. For instance: eggplant and carrots into long sitcks, cabbage into wedges and bell pepper and sweet potato into bite size peices.

  Cut the scotch bonnet into halves and remove seeds (or leave them in if more heat is desired).
• Fry the onion in oil until it starts to brown. Add vegetables and canned tomato. Using a spoon, crush the whole tomatoes into chunks.

  Add stock powder (or cubes) along with bay leaves and miso.
• Bring to a simmer and simmer on low heat until all the vegetables are cooked through.
• Strain the vegetables, preserving the liquid.
• Add the rice to the same pot. Measure the preserved, vegetable cooking liquid and add water until you have ~1000 mL liquid.

  Add the liquid to the rice, bring to a simmer. Turn the heat to low and let simmer until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is done. Add more water if needed.
• Place the rice on a large serving tray, cover with vegetables and tofu and serve wiht lime slices.