Okra Stew with Fufu

Ingredients

• 2 cups okra
• 1 cup spinach
• 4 fresh tomatoes/1 tin plum tomato
• 1 scotch bonnet
• ½ red bell pepper
• ½ onion
• 2 bouillon cubes
• 1 teaspoon iru (fermented oil seeds)
• soya chunks, optional
• 1 cup mushrooms
• salt to taste
• 1 cup red palm oil
• unripe plantain flour or fufu flour

Method

For the stew

Add 1 cup of water, bell pepper, tomatoes, scotch bonnet in a blender and liquidise.

Pour oil in a clean dry pot/pan on medium heat for a minute. Add the chopped onion and stir fry for a minute.

If using soya chunks, hydrate them by covering them with boiling water. Once hydrating, drain and leave to cool for 2 minutes, then squeeze the water out of them. You can add them into the stew like this – or you can fry them in a little soya sauce for extra umami flavouring.

Add the blended pepper/tomato, iru, stock cubes and salt. Cook this for 15 minutes. Then add the sliced okra, cooked veg meat, if using, and mushrooms and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Add the sliced spinach, cover pot and steam for 1 min.

For the fufu

Add 3 cups of water in a pan on medium heat. Add 2 cups of unripe plantain flour and stir until it becomes a smooth dough. The dough should be soft but not soggy. This process takes 5-10 minutes.

Wrap in cling film until ready to eat.

To serve, roll the fufu into a ball and place at the side of the stew. To eat, break off a piece of fufu with your fingers then dip it into the stew – no cutlery is used. Or you can learn to roll your fufu like in the photo above. Made In Hackney recommends watching a YouTube video for this!