Green leaf stew beside white rice and avocado on a takeout plate.

Cassava leaf stew with rice

Sierra Leone · Sub-Saharan Africa

Short description
A deep green leaf stew, rich with palm oil and savory protein, served as the main sauce for plain white rice.
Ingredients
Cassava leaves cook down with red palm oil, onion, chile, smoked fish or meat, and sometimes peanut paste, then are served with rice.
Cultural note
Leaf stews turn a staple crop into the center of the meal, stretching aromatics, oil, and protein into a sauce built for rice.
Common misconception
The leaves must be properly prepared and cooked; raw cassava leaves are not eaten like salad greens.

image credit

Rice, Palava sauce and Avocado.jpg

creator:
Afimaame
license:
CC BY-SA 4.0
modified:
Copied from Wikimedia Commons and resized/re-encoded for Gochizu; used as a visual approximation for cassava leaf stew with rice.

audio credit

voice:
marin (gpt-4o-mini-tts)
source:
OpenAI API Text to Speech
modified:
AI-generated voice audio.