Every West African country has its version of the famous tomato stew often paired with rice. Some people use tomato paste to make the gravy while others do a combination of paste and fresh tomatoes. But the amazing thing about using only fresh tomatoes and other fresh ingredients is that they give the stew a unique aroma and flavorful taste that can only be achieved with unprocessed ingredients. Today, we’ll be sharing our special recipe with you and hope you enjoy it as much as we do. But first, let’s take a quick look at the nutritional benefits of the ingredients being used.
Tomato is a major ingredient in this recipe, for obvious reasons. Just one cup of ripe stewed tomatoes contains 31% vitamin C. And 1 ounce (28 grams) of bell peppers provides 76% vitamin C and 15% vitamin A. We talked about habanero peppers recently (see recipe for the Ghanaian green pepper sauce made with habanero peppers) and can’t dismiss their nutritional benefits. This tomato stew is a wonderful option for vegans too.
Ingredients:
10 medium fresh tomatoes
10 medium-large red bell peppers
5-10 habanero peppers (depending on how spicy you prefer it)
5 large cloves of garlic
¼ cup fresh ginger
5 medium onions
3 tbsp dried thyme
1 tbsp dried rosemary
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 tbsp dried basil
8 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp chicken masala powder
1 tbsp paprika powder
1 tbsp curry powder
Salt to taste
How to make the stew:
- Wash all of the fresh ingredients and place the tomatoes, bell peppers, garlic and habanero peppers in a roasting pan
- Cut 4 onions and ginger and add to the pan.
- Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of thyme on it
- Drizzle the oil all over
- Preheat oven at 248 Fahrenheit (120 celsius) for 5-10 minutes
- Place the vegetables in the oven to roast for about 30 minutes or until the tomatoes and bell peppers are roasted but not burned.
- Once roasting is done, blend all of the ingredients together in a blender and put aside
- Cut 1 onion and place in a pot
- Add 4 tablespoons of oil and place on stove to fry under medium heat
- Once onions are nearly brown, pour the blended vegetables into it. Rinse the blender with ½ cup water and add to the pot. Salt should be added now.
- West African tomato stews are always accompanied by protein, so if you’re adding any meats, this is the time for it. This timing allows flavors from the protein to mix with that of the stew. (Get our roast turkey recipe)
- Add the dried herbs, paprika and masala powder and allow to cook for 10 minutes under medium heat
- Then add the curry powder and leave to cook for at least 15 minutes
- Your stew is ready to serve.