Vegetarian Thieboudienne
This recipe is a plant-based/vegan friendly alternative to the original Senegalese Jollof Rice
Servings: 6 people
Ingredients
Nokoss
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 1/2 green bell pepper
- 1 small bunch of parsley enough to fit 1.5 cups packed
- 1/2 onion
- 1 thumb-size of ginger
- 1/2 tsp dawa dawa powder fermented locust beans
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp grains of paradise can use black pepper instead
- 1 vegetable bouillon cube I used the Go Bio Mushroom Bouillon
Stew for the Rice
- 1/3 cup oil I used avocado oil
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 1 tbsp miso paste
- 1 tsp dawa dawa
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1 small can of tomato paste
- 2 medium tomatoes
- 1/2 cup nokoss from above.
- 1.5 scotch bonnet pepper i like mine spicy but feel free to omit
- 2.5 cups of broken rice I used West African white rice but you can use broken jasmine. Check FAQ for alternatives.
- 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp of wakame Japanese Kelp/seaweed
- 3 dried mushrooms dried shiitake
- 1 tsp anise seeds
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 tsp grains of paradise can also use black pepper instead
- 1/4 tsp of sugar
- 1 tsp nutritional yeast
- 1 mushroom bouillon cube i used the go bio brand
- 2 3/4 cups of water
Vegetables
- 1 large king oyster mushroom
- 1 medium sized eggplant small garden eggs work well here
- a quarter of a cabbage
- 5 okra
- 1/2 large sweet potato 1 small sweet potato works
- 1/2 large cassava freeze the other half for banku or fufu
Instructions
Nokoss
- Blend the nokoss spices first
- Mix the spice blend with the rest of the nokoss ingredients and blend in a food processor or blender. For a smoother texture without added water, place onions at the bottom of the blender or closer to the blade
Stew
- Start by heating the oil at medium heat and sautéing the onions till soft
- Add in the tomato paste and cook for about 5 minutes then add in the miso and dawa dawa to cook for another 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile blend up your tomato with the garlic and scotch bonnet pepper. You should also grind your whole spices (garlic powder, wakame, dried mushrooms, anise seeds, coriander seeds, dried rosemary, grains of paradise, sugar, nutritional yeast) into a powder.
- Add in your blended tomato mixture along with your ground spices, bouillon cube and nokoss. The sauce should taste over-seasoned as the rice and water will dilute it.
- Cook the stew at medium-low for about 30 minutes till the oil separates to the top. Check periodically to make sure it doesn’t burn.
- As the stew is cooking prep your vegetables (peel carrots and chop into three, peel and roughly chop the sweet potato and cassava as well as slice your eggplants)
- After the 30 minutes to cook the stew had passed, removw about 1 cup of stew and set it aside. You can freeze the stew for later or eat it with some pasta or any carb of choice.
Vegetables and Rice
- Now that the stew is cooked, keep the pot at medium heat and add in the water to bring to a boil
- Start by adding in your vegetables, specifically the root vegetables first (carrots, sweet potato and yucca) and the cabbage.
- OPTIONAL Briefly sear the eggplants and mushrooms in a pan with a little oil till crispy.
- After about 15 minutes, add the eggplant, mushrooms and okra
- Take out veggies as they cook and set aside. This should take about 30 minutes so make sure to cover the veggies so it doesn’t cool down too quickly.
- Add in your washed rice and bring it to a boil. Check for salt and adjust to personal preference. Once the rice is boiling, turn the heat to low and cover it with aluminium foil. The rice will take about 30 -40 minutes to cook.
- Serve it all on a plate together. Place the rice at the bottom first, then layer the veggies on top.
- Serve with Nokoss tofu for some plant-based protein.