A dark, mineral-rich sauce made from pounded fresh leaves simmered with dawadawa and dried shrimp, served as the daily accompaniment to tô across Burkina Faso.
Instructions
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1
Pound or blend the fresh leaves coarsely using a mortar and pestle.
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2
Heat shea butter in a pot and sauté onion until softened.
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3
Add tomatoes, dawadawa, and habanero. Cook 5 minutes.
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4
Add water and bring to a boil. Stir in ground dried shrimp and Maggi cube.
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5
Add the pounded leaves and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
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6
The sauce should be thick and rich. Adjust salt and serve over tô or rice.
Did You Know?
Burkinabe women can identify which leaves were used in a sauce feuilles by taste alone — each leaf variety gives a distinct mineral signature.
The Story Behind Sauce Feuilles
Sauce feuilles is the everyday workhorse of Burkinabe cuisine. Wild and cultivated leaves — baobab, amaranth, sorrel, and others — have sustained Sahelian populations for millennia. The sauce preserves this ancient relationship between people and the plants of their landscape.
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