Ifisashi

Ingredients

Groundnut sauce

• 150 graw groundnuts (peanuts), roasted and ground to a fine flour, or 150 g pure peanut butter
• 400 mlwater
• 1 tspsalt

Greens and aromatics

• 600 gpumpkin leaves (chibwabwa), rape leaves or collard greens, stems stripped and leaves shredded
• 2tomatoes, chopped
• 1large onion, sliced
• 2 tbspvegetable oil
• 1 tspsalt
• 1small green chilli, chopped (optional)

To serve

• nshima

Directions

1. If using whole groundnuts, roast them in a dry pan for 10 minutes until golden, rub off the skins and grind to a flour; this fresh grind is what gives real ifisashi its rough, nutty body.
2. Strip the tough central ribs from the greens and shred the leaves; pumpkin leaves also need the fibrous strings pulled from the stems, which Zambian cooks do by snapping and peeling.
3. Soften the onion in the oil in a wide pot over medium heat for 6 minutes, until translucent and sweet.
4. Add the tomatoes and the salt and cook 5 minutes more, mashing them down until they collapse into a loose red sauce and the oil starts to separate at the edges.
5. Whisk the groundnut flour into the 400 ml of water until smooth and pour it into the pot; it will look thin and grey at first.
6. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring often so it does not catch, until the sauce thickens, turns a deeper tan and stops tasting raw and chalky.
7. Pile the greens on top, cover, and let them wilt down for 3 minutes before stirring them through.
8. Cook uncovered a final 8 to 10 minutes, until the greens are tender but still green and the sauce clings to them thickly rather than pooling. Add the chilli, check the salt.
9. Serve hot, straight from the pot, with lumps of nshima to scoop it up.

Technique

• Ifisashi is a Bemba word for anything cooked in groundnut sauce, so the greens are interchangeable and the sauce is the constant. In practice it is whatever leaf is in the garden that week.
• Do not boil the sauce hard once the nuts are in; groundnut sauce splits and goes oily if it is left at a rolling boil, and it needs stirring rather than leaving alone.
• Zambian cooks do not add stock or cream. The richness is entirely from the ground nuts, so use enough of them: the sauce should coat a spoon.

Substitutions

• Peanut butter works, but use a pure one with no added sugar or palm oil and thin it well, or the sauce turns cloying. Spinach or kale stands in for pumpkin leaves; cook it a little less.

Variations

• Ifisashi with pounded groundnuts and okra thickens into a stickier sauce popular in the Luapula province.
• A mushroom version, using wild bowa mushrooms, is made in the rainy season.

History

A stew of leafy greens, most often pumpkin leaf, cooked down with ground peanut, or groundnut, into a thick, nutty sauce, developed in Zambian home cooking using peanut, a South American crop that reached Southern Africa through Portuguese trade routes beginning in the 1500s and 1600s, layered onto an older tradition of cooking leafy greens as a vegetable side dish across the region. Its specific combination of pumpkin leaf and ground peanut reflects Zambian cooking’s particular local ingredient pairing, distinguishing ifisashi from related peanut-based leafy green stews found under different names and using different specific greens elsewhere in Southern and Central Africa. It remains a common everyday vegetable dish across Zambian households, typically served alongside nshima as the meal’s main starch.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ifisashi?

Ifisashi is a main from Zambia: greens or meat cooked in rich groundnut sauce, Bemba classic. A stew of leafy greens, most often pumpkin leaf, cooked down with ground peanut, or groundnut, into a thick, nutty sauce, developed in Zambian home cooking using peanut, a South American crop that reached Southern Africa through Portuguese trade routes beginning in the 1500s and 1600s, layered onto an older tradition of cooking leafy greens as a vegetable side dish across the region. Its specific combination of pumpkin leaf and ground peanut reflects Zambian cooking’s particular local ingredient pairing, distinguishing ifisashi from related peanut-based leafy green stews found under different names and using different specific greens elsewhere in Southern and Central Africa. It remains a common everyday vegetable dish across Zambian households, typically served alongside nshima as the meal’s main starch.

How long does Ifisashi take to make?

Ifisashi takes 15 min of preparation and 30 min of cooking. The recipe makes 4 servings. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Ifisashi?

Yes, within limits. Peanut butter works, but use a pure one with no added sugar or palm oil and thin it well, or the sauce turns cloying. Spinach or kale stands in for pumpkin leaves; cook it a little less.

What is the most important thing to get right in Ifisashi?

Cook uncovered a final 8 to 10 minutes, until the greens are tender but still green and the sauce clings to them thickly rather than pooling. Add the chilli, check the salt.