How to create a tasty and creamy Aboboi Sauce

Aboboi is the Ghanaian name for Bambara nuts or beans. It looks very similar to chickpeas and I must say tastes similar too. It is one of those dishes that fall into a delicacy and not-so-often eaten category.  The reason is that it takes a long time to cook and usually people aren’t sure how to cook it to get a creamy and tasty sauce.

I find the taste to be a bit bland when cooked the traditional way of just boiling the Bambara nuts until soft and adding a bit of sugar for taste. Hence I have found a way of adding a little bit of flavor to my bambara nuts sauce. So I am sharing with you how I add extra flavor.

I will recommend using a pressure cooker to cook your bambara nuts.

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How to create a tasty and creamy Aboboi Sauce

Author: Joana Yeboah

Equipment

• 3 Cups Bambara Nuts

Materials

• 3 Cups Bambara Nuts
• Tiny piece of Scotch Bonnet Pepper (to your taste)
• 3 Fresh Sage Leaves
• 3 Sprigs of Thyme
• Small Onion (about 20g)
• 3 Gloves of Fresh Garlic (Optional)
• 1 Small fresh Tomato
• About 4 litres of Water
• 1 tbsp of Fresh Shea Butter or Coconut Oil
• Pinch of Salt to taste
• 1 tbsp Sugar

Instructions

• Wash the bambara nuts and place them in your cooking pot.
• Add enough boiling water to cover the nuts. Cover the pot and let it sit for about 20 – 30 minutes before starting to cook.
• After 20 minutes, add in the potato, pepper, onion, garlic, tomato, and herbs. Start cooking the bambara nuts. You will need to keep a watchful eye and top up the water when needed until the Bambara nuts soften up.
• Once the veggies and herbs have to soften up, remove, blend, and put back in the pot. Sometimes the veggies and herbs soften up so much that they disintegrated into the sauce. In this case, you just discard any unwanted peels or stems.
• Lightly mash some of the Bambara nuts into the sauce. If you find it a bit too thick, loosen it up with some hot water.
• Season the sauce with a pinch of salt, sugar, and shea butter or coconut oil. If using shea butter, this must be very fresh and edible.
• Serve the aboboi with some kayaker, tale, kelewele, or boiled ripe plantains

Notes

NOTE: Omitting either one of the fresh herbs as well as the tomato does not make much difference. Hence you will find my two recipes on the Youtube channel where I omit some of the ingredients. But I will recommend you use this full recipe if you have all the ingredients to hand.