African Berbere plantain stew – for this wonderful vegan vegetable pot, we cook the German potato in combination with African plantain in a little coconut milk flavored with berbere.
While plantains are not sweet like regular bananas, they do have a slightly sweet taste. In this stew, we squeeze the sweetness by using the firm, still green plantains (ripe plantains, on the other hand, are brown and sweeter). In green plantains, the sugar hasn’t developed yet, so the bananas give the soup a starchy body without a lot of sweetness.
African plantain stew is a delicious, healthy and flavorful stew that can be eaten as a main meal or as a side dish.
African Berbere plantain stew – considered Ayurvedic
African Berbere Plantain Stew is perfect for balancing kapha, the dosha that often dominates during the cold winter and spring. This stew is an easy and inexpensive dish made with green plantains. I picked up this recipe in East Africa, where a lot of cooking is done with the Ethiopian spice mixture “Berbere”. Green bananas are actually very unripe dessert bananas and indigestible. But like many other ingredients, when cooked tenderly, they become delicious and nutritious foods. With the addition of spices and flavors, in this case the Berbere spice mixture, which essentially consists of chili, ginger, garlic, allspice, cloves and coriander, the green bananas become soft and delicious together with potatoes.
Enjoy this easy and comforting stew on its own or with cooked rice and chutney. Unwind from the stressful work week with this easy-to-cook exotic and easy-to-digest dinner. If you’re enjoying African plantain stew in the summertime, garnish with lots of fresh coriander to make this dish an extra pitta balancer.
Berbere an Ethiopian spice mixture
Berbere is Africa as a spice blend. Berbere is used in Ethiopia and Eritrea. This traditional blend, with an intense taste, can best be described as hot and spicy. The main ingredients are paprika, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, allspice, chili and garlic. Many spices are roasted whole before being ground for this blend. Ethiopian Berbere goes well with soups, vegetable and meat dishes.
Make Ethiopian Berbere yourself
Spices:
- 2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 4 tbsp sweet paprika powder
- 1 tsp whole fenugreek
- 3/4 tsp cardamom whole
- 1/2 tsp whole cilantro
- 1/2 tsp whole cumin
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
Instructions:
1. The “whole” spices are roasted in a pan without adding fat until they smell. Then cool and grind in a mortar.
2. Mix with the remaining spices.
3. Store the berbere spice mix in a tightly sealed jar.
if you like our African Berbere Plantain Stew, you might also be interested in these recipes:
- vegan potato and pepper goulash
- easy vegan bombay potatoes
- Chickpea noodle curry
- Canary potatoes with salsa and chimichurri
- more vegetable recipes
African Berbere plantain stew
Equipment
Ingredients
- 700 G potatoes sticky
- 2 plantains* green
- 2 onions
- 2 tomatoes
- 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
- 150 ml vegetable broth
- 400 ml coconut milk*
- 1 tsp Berber*
- kosher salt*
- pepper from the mill
optionally:
- small Bunch of coriander
Instructions
- Peel potatoes and cut into cubes.
- Peel the plantains (do not leave any scraps of peel on the fruit) and cut into pieces.
- Peel and roughly chop the onions.
- Wash tomatoes and cut into pieces. Remove the stalk.
- Heat vegetable oil in a saucepan and sauté the onions together with the bananas.
- Add the potatoes and tomatoes, sauté briefly and deglaze with the broth.
- Add coconut milk and season with salt, pepper and berbere.
- Let the stew cook for about 20 minutes.
- Finally, season to taste and serve sprinkled with a little Berbere.
- Optionally enjoy with chopped coriander.
