Name: Foufou
Eaten in: Côte d’Ivoire
Foodie: Linda
Not even 10 words into the post and I know I already have a few enemies (Ghanaian ones, more precisely). Well, rest assured dear Ghanaian friends, the Ivorian foufou is nothing like the fufu eaten in Ghana. In fact, it is probably 100 times better. (I think I am in “enemy-making” mode.. oh well). In Côte d’Ivoire, foufou is a very festive dish made from plantains or yams lightly pounded with some lukewarm red palm oil. It is absolutely delightful and very easy on the palate, meaning, you will be done eating the foufou and the light soup that accompanies it before you know it, and you might even forget what the debate was all about in the process. Try it.
Foufou
Print recipe
| Serves | 4 |
| Prep time | 5 minutes |
| Cook time | 30 minutes |
| Total time | 35 minutes |
| Meal type | Side Dish |
Ingredients
- 2 yellow plantains (ripe but still firm)
- ⅓ cup red palm oil ((or more if you want the foufou to be really red))
- salt
- chili powder ((to decorate))
Directions
| 1. | Peel and boil the plantains in a saucepan |
| 2. | Using a large mortar or pestle, or in western kitchens, a potato masher, puree the cooked yet firm plantains while mixing in the lukewarm red palm oil |
| 3. | Add salt to taste and form medium-sized balls with the mixture |
| 4. | Decorate with the chili powder |
| 5. | Serve with a light soup |
I had this in Abidjan… it was sooooo good. I’m going to try to replicate it and see how that turns out… will keep you posted.
Definitely do! You will find much better (redder) palm oil in West Africa, so enjoy. Serve it with a light soup. Recipe coming up soon.
I mentioned elsewhere that this foufou dish is quite well known in Ghana. It called plantain oto. It’s ripe plantain mixed with zomi(spicy palm oil) or palmnut soup. It is usually eaten with palm nut soup-at least that’s how my mum served it.
Forgot to add that there was a similar dish we ate regularly whilst I was growing up which was ripe roasted plantain. Mashed and mixed with zomi palm oil or palm nut soup and eaten with palm nut /groundnut soup- never light soup. I don’t think this version was popular.
Very nice. Plesase share any other Ghanaian dishes with us! Would love to publish them. Email us at tropicalfoodies @ gmail . com
I think the recipes are slightly different and obviously what the dishes are served with. Nonetheless very interesting.
Okay, so my first attempt was fine… I’m sure there’s room for improvement. I needed to add more palm oil I think. I’m waiting for the recipe for the light soup and I hope it’s not going to be essentially meat broth with tomato puree (that’s pretty much the ghanaian recipe and I hate how the solid fat starts to harden up when it’s cold)
No, that’s not what it is! It’s a mix of eggplant and tomatoes. Delicious!