Ndambé

Dakar's breakfast stew of cowpeas cooked down with onion, garlic, a little tomato, and chilli, spooned hot into a split baguette

Origin: Dakar & Senegal

From the journey of Cowpea.

Ndambé is a stew of black-eyed peas, niébé, cooked until the beans are soft and the sauce is thick, and it is best known in the form in which Dakar eats it for breakfast: spooned hot into a split baguette, often with a smear of mayonnaise and a dash of hot sauce, and handed across a street stall as pain ndambé. Every vendor has a recipe. The base is onions cooked slowly in oil, with garlic, a little tomato paste, bay, and chilli, sharpened with a splash of vinegar; some cooks add sweet potato, some a little red palm oil for colour, some pieces of beef or lamb, and at home it is eaten from the pot with bread or rice. The word niébé, now the French name for the cowpea across the whole of francophone Africa, comes from the Wolof ñebbe. Bread has been part of the Senegalese breakfast since French colonial rule, and pain ndambé is the point at which the West African bean and the French loaf became a single street food.

Ingredients

Beans

400 g dried black-eyed peas (niébé), soaked overnight

Stew

4 tbsp vegetable oil, or 2 tbsp oil and 2 tbsp red palm oil
2 large onions, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 bay leaves
1 scotch bonnet, left whole, or 1 tsp chilli flakes
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into 2 cm cubes (optional)
1 stock cube (optional)
1 tbsp white vinegar
Salt and black pepper

To Serve

2 baguettes, to serve
Mayonnaise and hot sauce, to serve

Method

Drain the peas, cover with fresh water, and simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour until soft. Drain, keeping the cooking liquid.
Heat the oil in a heavy pan and cook the onions slowly for about 15 minutes, until soft and golden.
Add the garlic for 1 minute, then the tomato paste, and fry for 2 minutes.
Add the peas, about 500 ml of their cooking liquid, the bay leaves, the scotch bonnet, the sweet potato, and the stock cube.
Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring now and then and crushing some of the peas against the side of the pan, until the stew is thick and the sweet potato is soft.
Stir in the vinegar, season with salt and pepper, and remove the scotch bonnet and bay leaves.
Split the baguettes, spread with mayonnaise, fill generously with ndambé, and add hot sauce. Or serve the stew in bowls with bread or rice.

Notes

Ndambé is better made the day before and reheated, when it has thickened further. For a meaty version, brown 300 g of cubed lamb or beef before the onions and let it cook in the stew until tender, adding water as needed.

The Gastrographer

Name: Ndambé
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 1 h 30 min
Total time: 1 h 45 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Dakar & Senegal
Ingredients: 400 g dried black-eyed peas (niébé), soaked overnight; 4 tbsp vegetable oil, or 2 tbsp oil and 2 tbsp red palm oil; 2 large onions, thinly sliced; 4 garlic cloves, crushed; 2 tbsp tomato paste; 2 bay leaves; 1 scotch bonnet, left whole, or 1 tsp chilli flakes; 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into 2 cm cubes (optional); 1 stock cube (optional); 1 tbsp white vinegar; Salt and black pepper; 2 baguettes, to serve; Mayonnaise and hot sauce, to serve

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control