National Dishes of the World

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Mataba
Photo: 제작자: Nano Banana Pro, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

main dish vegan

Mataba

Pounded cassava leaves cooked in coconut milk with garlic – an everyday Comorian dish, often with fish.

Eaten in: Comoros

Prep
15 min
Cooking
1 h 30 min
Total
1 h 45 min
Servings
4

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About the dish

Mataba is one of the most everyday dishes of the Comoros: young cassava leaves pounded in a mortar and then cooked for a long time with garlic, onion and coconut milk until they become a thick, velvety, dark-green sauce. The coconut softens the slight bitterness of the leaves, and the garlic gives them a lift. Mataba is served with rice, plantains, cassava or breadfruit, and very often with grilled or dried fish. Similar cassava-leaf dishes are cooked throughout the region, from Madagascar to the East African coast.

Main ingredients

  • cassava leaves
  • coconut milk
  • garlic
  • onion
  • salt

Recipe

Mataba

https://foodmap.ominuvo.com/dish/mataba

Ingredients

4 servings

4 servings

Method

  1. Thaw the cassava leaves and put them in a pot with the water, chopped onion and half the crushed garlic.

  2. Simmer, covered, over low heat for about an hour, stirring now and then and adding water if the leaves start to stick.

  3. Pour in the coconut milk and add the rest of the garlic, the chilli and the salt.

  4. Cook uncovered for 20–30 minutes, stirring often, until the sauce is thick and the leaves are completely soft.

  5. Serve with rice, plantains or grilled fish.

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