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Vegetables from Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ombolo wa koba (ash-treated cassava-leaf dish)

Cassava leaves are left for three or four days to wilt and turn black, then chopped and boiled for about an hour with an alkaline extract of ash from banana skins and palm flowers. Salt, dried fish or meat and acid palm oil finish the dish. The FAO bulletin lists it as a fermented cassava-leaf product.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Ombolo wa koba itself.

DocumentedVegetables3 days – 4 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe source gives no amounts.
Cassava leaves[fao134]
Water extract of ash from burnt dried banana skins and palm tree flowersWater is poured through the ash in a strainer[fao134]
Salt, and dried fish or meat[fao134]
Acid palm oil[fao134]

Total time across the recorded steps: 3 days – 4 days

Start
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What changes: Cassava leaves are left for three or four days and wilt and turn black

Step 1 of 4
Leave the leaves to wilt and turn black
Time
3–4 days
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
green to black

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Cassava leaves are left for three or four days to wilt and turn black, then chopped and boiled for about an hour with an alkaline extract of ash from banana skins and palm flowers. Salt, dried fish or meat and acid palm oil finish the dish. The FAO bulletin lists it as a fermented cassava-leaf product. Made in 4 steps over 3 days – 4 days. The longest step, leave the leaves to wilt and turn black, takes 3–4 days (Battcock M. and Azam-Ali S. 1998).

Key numbers
Main step3–4 daysReported[fao134]Leave the leaves to wilt and turn black

What makes this one different

Unlike ntoba mbodi, whose chopped leaves are wrapped in large leaves and left for two to four days, the leaves are left to wilt and blacken for three or four days, then boiled with alkaline ash water and finished with palm oil.

Related ferments

Safety

Chopping cassava leaves frees hydrocyanic acid, which is toxic. The source says the alkaline ash extract neutralises it, but gives no measurement, and no study we found tested this dish, so do not rely on the ash to make the leaves safe. Keep to the full hour of boiling, and never eat the leaves raw. In FAO's figures for mpondu, another cassava-leaf dish, boiling took the leaves from 68.6 mg/kg to 1.2 after 30 minutes [fao1990]. In ntoba mbodi, a related leaf ferment, cyanide stopped falling once the leaves turned alkaline [kobawila2003].

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

  1. [fao1990] FAO 1990, Roots, tubers, plantains and bananas in human nutrition, ch. 7, Toxic substances and antinutritional factors (cassava toxicity)gov
  2. [kobawila2003] Kobawila S.C. 2003, Les aliments fermentés d'Afrique centrale, cas du Congo, doctoral thesis, Université de Ouagadougou (on ntoba mbodi, a related product)paper
  3. [fao134] Battcock M. and Azam-Ali S. 1998, Fermented fruits and vegetables, a global perspective, FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 134, ch. 6.4.2 Ombolo wa koba (citing Jones et al. 1996 and Menea and Bishosha)gov