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Ndole Soup

Ndole Soup is a Cameroonian dish made with bitter leaf, shrimp, dried fish, peanut butter, and spices.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and peanut share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and 3 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: peanut, fish, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the bitter leaf in cold water, then chop it into pieces.

  2. Marinate the shrimp for a few hours in a paste made from half the minced ginger, half the chopped onion, and a little oil.

  3. Soak the dried fish in water for a few hours.

  4. Cut the soaked fish into pieces and remove any skin or bones.

Make the soup

  1. Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a large pot and fry the remaining onions, garlic, ginger, rosemary, and thyme for a few minutes.

  2. Add the tomatoes to the pot and reduce heat to a simmer for several minutes.

  3. Add the bitter leaf to the pot, stir, and simmer for several minutes more.

  4. Add peanut butter and hot water, stir, and continue to cook the soup at a simmer.

  5. Add the fish to the pot, along with the green pepper and any hot chile pepper, salt, and red or black pepper you think it needs.

  6. Cover the pot and continue to cook over low heat.

Finish and serve

  1. When the greens seem tender, heat oil in a skillet and stir‑fry the shrimp (or prawns) along with their marinade.

  2. Add the shrimp to the soup.

  3. Cook the soup, adding water or stock if desired, until it is the consistency you like.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Fish + peanuttop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Garlic + tomatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together14,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Peanut + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together877 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  5. Ginger + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bitter leaf
Provides the main leafy body and a slightly bitter flavour that the rich peanut base balances.
Peanut butter
Thickens the soup and adds creamy body, richness and nutty flavour.
Dried fish
Adds savoury, concentrated fish flavour to the broth.
Shrimp
Contributes sweet, briny seafood flavour and tender texture when stir-fried at the end.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture that build the base of the sauce.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth when fried at the start.

The step that matters

Adding the peanut butter and hot water. Peanut butter can scorch or clump on direct heat, so it should be stirred in thoroughly with hot water and kept at a gentle simmer to form a smooth, even sauce.

Flavor stand-ins for the ginger

The recipe marks ginger as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, fish, peanut, butter, onion, garlic, tomato):

  1. Corianderabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Gingerthe original
  3. Celeryabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Cuminabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, fish, peanut, butter, onion, garlic, tomato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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