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Ndole

A Cameroonian soup of beef, stockfish, peanuts, bitter leaves, and shrimp simmered with onions, garlic, and crayfish.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Ndole

5–6
Total1 hr

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Season the beef in a large pot with salt, maggi, and one-third of the onions, then boil until the meat is soft.

  2. Boil the stockfish with salt and water until cooked, then add it to the beef. Reserve the remaining liquid.

  3. Boil the peanuts for about 10 minutes, then cool them before pulsing or blending into a paste. Add the peanut paste to the beef and stockfish mixture.

  4. Grind half of the remaining onion and garlic into a paste, then stir it into the mixture.

  5. Add the crayfish, then boil for 10 minutes, stirring often to avoid burning. Season with salt and maggi to taste.

Add greens and shrimp

  1. Add spinach or bitter leaves to the soup, stir, and simmer for a few minutes.

  2. While the soup simmers, heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the shrimp and stir continuously until they turn pink. Add the remaining onions and stir again for a few more minutes.

  3. Add the shrimp and onion mixture to the soup pot, and stir continuously for about 2 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve hot.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

684Calories
60 gProtein
43 gFat
17 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 10 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Peanut1 oz (28g)161
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Shrimp100g cooked99
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Spinach1 cup raw (30g)7
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Stewnot in our table0
Crayfishnot 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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Garlic + spinachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Peanut + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together877 recipes

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

  4. Peanut + spinachtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together88 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Stew beef
Becomes tender as it simmers, as its connective tissue breaks down into a richer broth.
Peanuts
Ground into a paste that thickens the soup and gives it a creamy body and nutty flavour.
Onions
Soften and turn sweet as they cook, building the savoury base of the soup.
Ground crayfish
Adds a concentrated savoury, seafood aroma to the soup.
Bitter leaves or spinach
Wilt into the simmering soup, adding texture and a green, slightly bitter note.
Shrimp
Cooked in oil until pink, adding a savoury seafood flavour and aroma to the soup.

The step that matters

Stirring the peanut paste while it boils with the crayfish. Ground peanut paste is thick and rich in starch and fat, so it sticks to the bottom of the pot and scorches easily. Frequent stirring keeps it smooth and stops a burnt taste from spreading through the soup.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, peanut, garlic, crayfish, spinach, shrimp):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Corianderfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, peanut, garlic, crayfish, spinach, shrimp. 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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