🇧🇫 Burkinabe Cuisine

Sauce Feuilles

Leaf Sauce

Prep Time 35 min

Servings 6

Difficulty Easy

Calories 168 kcal

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.

Ingredients

500g fresh baobab or amaranth leaves, washed
100g dried shrimp, ground
2 tbsp dawadawa
2 tbsp shea butter
1 large onion, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 habanero pepper
1 Maggi cube
Salt to taste
500ml water

Instructions

1 Pound or blend the fresh leaves coarsely using a mortar and pestle.
2 Heat shea butter in a pot and sauté onion until softened.
3 Add tomatoes, dawadawa, and habanero. Cook 5 minutes.
4 Add water and bring to a boil. Stir in ground dried shrimp and Maggi cube.
5 Add the pounded leaves and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
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.