African fufu is a very popular African dish that originates from the western and central parts of the continent. It is a staple food in countries like Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire or Cameroon. The original recipe may be somewhat diffiult to reproduce, so in this post we bring to you an adapted version of the traditional african recipe.
STOCKHOLM APRIL 2025: African fufu (foofoo) is a very popular African dish that originates from the western and central parts of the continent, It is a staple food in countries like Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire or Cameroon were it is known as “Couscous de Cameroun”. The Ghanaian method of preparation requires mixing and punding separately cassava and green plantain flour. Cassava is a woody shrub also knowns as yuca, and green plantain are cooking bananas. These two ingredients are mixed thoroughly with water. After being cooked they are traditionally served with a soup, tipically groundnut soup or palm nut soup.
The original recipe may be somewhat diffiult to reproduce in our society, so in this post we bring to you an adapted version of the traditional african recipe. This is a really simple recipe that needs very few ingredients and is quite fast to make.
In order to make African Fufu you will be needing the following list of ingredients:
- Two pounds of yams
- Salt to personal taste
- Black pepper (freshly ground) to personal taste
- One teaspoon of olive oil
Once you have gathered all the needed ingredients from the previous list you will be all set to move on to the preparation process of your African Fufu.
The first step will be to fill half a pot with cold water.
After that, move on to carefully peeling all of the yams. Once you have peeled them, cut them into medium-sized chunks and procede to placing them in the pot with the water.
The next step will be to start boiling the water with the yams and once the water boils, leave the yams cooking for around twenty five minutes or so. Once they are done boiling, the yams should have a soft texture.
When you feel like the yams are ready get them out of the water to cool them and keep a cup of the water you used to boil them because you will need it later to make your soup. Remember that you can make whatever soup or stew you desire to accompany your Tufu.
Feel the yams to see if they are cool, and if they happen to be, procede to place them in a bowl and start mashing them along with the salt, pepper and olive oil. You could use butter instead of olive oil but we feel like the oil is the better option.
You can use a blender to remove any lumps that are harder to remover by hand.
Then, you will place the yam mash that you just made in the bowl you were using before and start beating them with a spoon until the mash gets a smooth, sticky and very elastic texture. For this step feel completely free to use your hands, after all, that is the traditional way! Just make sure they are clean.
The last step will be to grab the mash and shape them into similar sized balls. Then, they will be ready to serve with whatever soup or stew you chose to make.
Image: Agoetee 123
