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Katogo

Katogo is a Ugandan breakfast stew made with green bananas, onions, peppers, tomatoes, beans, and spices.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cumin and beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,188 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Katogo

Time10 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and sauté

  1. Chop the green bananas and set aside.

  2. Sauté the onions in a pot of cooking oil until lightly browned.

  3. Add the pepper and tomatoes.

  4. Season to taste with salt.

  5. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

  6. Add the banana.

  7. Stir for another minute.

Simmer with spices

  1. Add the water.

  2. Cook for 10 minutes over medium heat.

  3. Stir in the cumin, curry powder, and black pepper.

  4. Simmer for 2 minutes.

  5. Adjust the spices to taste.

  6. Rinse the cooked beans with clean water and drain them well, then stir into the pot.

  7. Simmer for another 10 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve hot.

  2. Garnish with coriander.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

344Calories
6 gProtein
15 gFat
52 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 11 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Banana1 medium (118g)105
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Bell Pepper1 medium (119g)31
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Turmeric1 tsp ground (3g)9
Cumin1 tsp ground (2.1g)8
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Beannot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cumin + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,188 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Tomato + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Tomato + cumintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,272 recipes

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

  4. Onion + cumintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,498 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pepper + cumintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,382 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Green bananas (matooke)
Starchy body that softens into the thick, filling base of the stew.
Onion
Browning in the oil builds sweet, savoury flavour at the start of the dish.
Tomatoes
Acidity and moisture that help form the sauce around the bananas.
Boiled beans
Adds protein-rich body and a firmer texture that holds its shape in the stew.

The step that matters

Sautéing the onions until lightly browned. Browning onions in oil develops sweet, savoury flavour through caramelisation and the Maillard reaction. Burnt onions turn bitter and spoil the whole pot, so heat should stay moderate and the onions should be stirred.

Swap the banana

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, pepper, tomato, cumin, beans):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Bananathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pepper, tomato, cumin, beans. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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