Burkina Faso – Babenda

by Bob Huyu

Welcome to Burkina faso where the traditional taste is preserved with traditional dishes. Babenda is among the loved and respected dishes in the country. It has been prepared far more than a meal but a medicine and nutritional agent especially for men. You can’t speak about Burkina Faso cuisines without mentioning the Babenda dish.

Burkina Faso is also known for the welcoming customs from it’s inhabitants, being located in the western Africa the country has cope with some eastern dishes but still holds her own dishes customs.

Babenda is a mix of vegetables and grains to give a unique taste. It also added with a fish to add proteins in the dish.

Today Babenda cuisine will contain rice mix with spinach, locust beans (also known as Dawadawa), peanuts and sandiness. The preparation takes about 20 minutes and 25 minutes of cooking. Babenda dish can be served with fish or meat roast, sometimes people take it as plain as it is.

Mind you that Babenda is a general name for the vegetables and grain mix, therefore when ordering remember to name your style.

Let us prepare this Burkina Faso taste, step by step.

Preparation

• 1 cup of rice
• a bunch of spinach
• 1 cup of locust beans (dawadawa)
• 3 teaspoons of peanut
• 3 dried sardines
• salt
• oil

Cooking steps

• Clean rice, chop spinach and get every ingredient ready.
• Using food processor, grind locust beans, sardines and peanut to a thick puree, it should look like coarse sand.
• Add rice and process to mix well.
• Into a big pot add the blended mix and top up with spinach, salt , oil and add 1 1/2 cup of water, bring to boil for 5 minutes.
• Look to the mix and mix them again, bring to boil for 15 minutes more.
• Serve warm after the meal is ready.