Our Favourite Yebeh Recipe: How to Make this Traditional West African Stew

Have ever heard of yebeh? It’s a comforting stew made with cassava and sweet potato, super easy and delicious! What’s even better, all ingredients are readily available even outside West Africa, so you can easily recreate this Sierra Leonean delicacy without compromising on taste!

Yebeh is a traditional Mende recipe, tracing its origins back to their farming culture. This version of yebeh is vegan, but you can also add chicken to it – just boil it in advance in some vegetable bouillon, shred into small pieces and add to the sauce at the end.

You can serve yebeh alongside cassava leaf soup and groundnut stew, plus copious amounts of white rice, for a true Sierra Leone-inspired dinner party – one that your friends and family are sure to remember.

Just be sure to make lots and lots of yebeh, as it’s even better on the following day.

Here are the ingredients you need:

• 500 g cassava
• 500 g sweet potato
• 1 onion
• 1 piece ginger
• 100 g tomato paste
• 2 tbsp peanut butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp chilli flakes (mild)
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 
• 100 g spinach
• 2 or 3 cups water

Peel and dice the cassava into chunks (about 1.5 cm per side), and add it alongside the turmeric to a pot of salted boiling water. While it cooks, prep the rest of the vegetables and condiments – peel and dice the sweet potato into the same size as the cassava, and finely mince the onion and ginger.

After the cassava has been boiling for approximately 10 minutes, add the sweet potato to the pot and cook for a further 10 minutes. Don’t be tempted to add them to the boiling water at the same time, cassava and sweet potato have very different cooking times!

Fry the onion for about 5 mins until shiny, then add ginger, chilli flakes, tomato paste and cayenne pepper. Cook until everything is combined, approximately another 5 minutes. Add the peanut butter and water and bring the mixture to boil, then stir through the cassava, sweet potato and spinach. Let it simmer until thick, approximately 10/15 minutes.