Up next is another stew, this time from the island nation of Cabo Verde. Otherwise known as Cape Verde in English, this country is off the coast of western Africa and is influenced by their Portuguese roots. It is unique in that the islands were uninhabited before the Portuguese colonized them, where they played a large part in the slave trade until it was abolished, and they gained independence in 1975.
The main ingredient in my cachupa was beans. Since this is a vegetarian version, I went heavier on the beans. For meat-eaters, usually a few types of meat are used, including chorizo and and corned beef. I used dried white beans and red beans for this recipe, and soaked them overnight before using them in the stew.
I started by sauteing onion and sweet potato. Other root vegetables can be used, but for me sweet potato was the most familiar and easy to find. Yuca/manioc is also a popular option.
I then added my soaked beans.
Then, I covered the ingredients with broth and added in some chopped cabbage. I used savoy cabbage here, likely because that's just what I had on hand at the time. Greens like collards or kale are often used as well.
Normally cachupa would included hominy. I really tried to find hominy locally but wasn't able to, and I didn't really feel like paying an arm and a leg for it online. I opted to use canned chickpeas for a similar look (it also added another bean to the mix) but I will not pretend like they taste anything alike! Hominy is a type of corn (like the kind used for grits--separate from sweet corn) and if I ever do find it locally I will be stocking up on it.
Once the stew had simmered for a while it was quite thick from the beans adding starchiness to the broth. I added my veggie chorizo at the point as simmering it for the whole time would have made it gummy probably. I also added some extra paprika for a smoky note.
The end result was a comforting, warm stew full of lots of plant protein and varying textures. My red beans were a little old so they didn't get quite as soft as I would have liked, but it didn't detract from the taste too much. The recipe I used has disappeared and is not available on wayback machine, but I found another authentic one which states that often the liquid is drained from the leftovers and eaten for breakfast along with a fried egg on top and that sounds absolutely delicious.
Recipes Used: (not the one I used, but very informative) Cachupa
コメント