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Kunde
Cowpea leaves with peanut paste
Kunde: Nyanza cowpea leaves stewed with tomato and peanut paste
Farms around Kisumu and Siaya grow cowpeas for the beans, but the young leaves are picked all season and sold in bundles at roadside stalls for an everyday village vegetable. Cooked down with onion and tomato, the leaves are soft with a gentle, almost green-bean flavour, and a spoon of peanut paste stirred through at the end makes the sauce nutty and creamy. Find cowpea leaves fresh or frozen at African grocers, or use young spinach with a few pea shoots, and serve with ugali, rice or boiled sweet potatoes. Adding the peanut paste too early and leaving it to boil is the usual pitfall: it catches and tastes scorched. Chef's tip: loosen the peanut paste with a few spoons of hot cooking liquid before stirring it in, so it melts smoothly instead of clumping.
- Total time
- 30 min
- Difficulty
- easy
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
- 1 ⅛ lb cowpea (kunde) leavesfresh, picked from stems, or frozen
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 onionchopped
- 2 tomatoeschopped
- ¾ tsp salt
- ¾ cup water
- 3 tbsp smooth unsweetened peanut pasteor 4 tbsp ground roasted peanuts
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Method
0/7 doneStep 1: Wash fresh 1 ⅛ lb cowpea (kunde) leaves well and chop roughly.
Step 2: Heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a wide pot over a medium heat and fry 1 onion until soft and golden.
5 minStep 3: Add 2 tomatoes and cook until they break down into a thick sauce.
4 minStep 4: Add the leaves, ¾ tsp salt and ¾ cup water. Cover and simmer over a low heat, stirring now and then, until the leaves are tender and dark.
10 minStep 5: Spoon a few tablespoons of the hot liquid into a bowl with 3 tbsp smooth unsweetened peanut paste and stir into a smooth sauce.
Step 6: Stir the peanut sauce into the greens and heat gently for 2 minutes, stirring, until creamy; don't let it boil hard.
2 minStep 7: Taste for salt and serve warm.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 130 kcal
- Protein
- 6 g
- Carbs
- 9 g
- Fat
- 9 g
- Fibre
- 5 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does kunde take?
- About 30 minutes in total: 10 minutes to prepare and 20 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 4 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegan?
- Yes. It has no meat, fish, dairy or eggs.
- Is it gluten free?
- Yes, as written. Check the labels on stock, sauces and spice mixes, which sometimes contain gluten.
- What can I use instead of onion?
- 2 shallots per onion.
- What can I use instead of tomatoes?
- Tinned chopped tomatoes: a 400g tin for about 6 tomatoes (in cooked dishes, not salads).
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