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How to Make Sombe
1. First off you need to locate a cassava garden or farm and then ask
the owners to pluck some leaves off their plants. The key here is to
get the top tender leaves with stalks that snap when you break them.
Depending on the size and lushness of the plant get just enough but
do not destroy the whole plant. That is pluck twice or thrice from one
plant then move onto another.
2. Once you have plucked a bunch you think is enough to make
soup, remove the leaves one by one from their stalks and put in a
mortar.
3. Pound the cassava leaves. If you do not have a mortar, you can
use a blender. It works well too.
4. Place the pounded cassava leaves in a large pan (because you
will be adding a lot more ingredients so you need enough space for
them.) with enough water and salt. Put on fire.
5. A good friend once told me that the secret to great sombe is
garlic, onions and lots of green pepper. You will need a lot of green
pepper, garlic (about 4 cloves or depending on the amount of sombe
you are making.) tomatoes onions.
6. You can choose to grate the green pepper or finely dice it. I like to
do the latter. Crush the garlic and then finely chop it. Chop the
onions and tomatoes.
7. While the sombe is boiling, add the vegetables one by one. There
is no specific order as along as all the vegetables are added in.
8. Now because sombe is not sombe without palm oil, you will need
a generous amount of it. For this sombe, we put close to 1 ½ cups of
palm oil. If you do not want it to be oily, you can reduce on the palm
oil. All the while the sombe should be boiling. It should take 2 ½
hours or more to cook.
9. Keep stirring to incorporate the flavours. Once all the vegetables
are tender, let the sombe simmer for 30+ minutes or until the water
has reduced and the palm oil has turned a dark-ish color.
10. Remove from fire and allow to cool. Serve.