Cassava Leaf Soup and Rice

• Cassava leaves, pounded

• Beef (or other meat), wash and cut

• 200 ml palm oil

• 1 fish, if preferred

• 2 onions, chopped

• Chilli or hot Peppers

• 4 cups water (1l)

• Salt, for taste

1. In a cooking pot, add your  meat or fish, salt and 2 cups of water.  

2. Then bring it to boil for 10 minutes or until the fish is cooked. When the fish is done, remove it from the pot. Let it cool down and remove the bones from fish and set aside.

3. Add the cassava leaves in the pot. Let it simmer for 5 minutes and add another cup of water

4. Pour the palm oil in the sauce and add onion, and chili pepper .

5. Then simmer for 30 minutes on medium heat.You will need to stir the sauce occasionally to prevent it from burning

6. Return the fish  in the pot and salt to taste.

7. Stir well and cook for 15 minutes.

8. When your soup is done, serve it with rice

I would say that about 65 percent of this meal is whole food and the rest is processed. The greens are are grown and then pounded and put into a sealed bag which is then frozen. I at first that the green were fine but then my mom brought back cassava leaves from Liberia and it tastes a lot different from the greens that are grown here. The animals that were used in this meal, I don't know how they were killed, but most usually we get our meat from markets and other areas like that. The same goes for our seasoning that we use for the soup

When it comes to the cassava leaves, they are grown here, but they originated from my mother’s homeland, Liberia. For the ones that are grown here, I’m sure that they are mostly organically grown. When we have the time we even pick our own greens from farms in New Jersey. For the meat that we use, I am not sure if they contains pesticides and how commercially grown they really are, we get majority of it from markets so I think that it’s mostly organic.