Discover West Africa: Jollof Rice

History

Jollof rice is perhaps one of the most well-known and celebrated dishes originating from West Africa. This dish is popular throughout several countries like Ghana, The Gambia, Senegal and Cameroon and is even the national dish of Nigeria. Jollof rice most likely originates from the Wolof people in Senegal and The Gambia who named the dish benachin meaning “one-pot.”

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What is Jollof rice?

Jollof rice is a one-pot rice dish made with tomatoes, tomato paste, peppers, oil, rice, salt, spices and onions. Spices and additional ingredients vary country to country. This creates a competitive spirit on which rice is best. For example, Ghana and Nigeria who have a feud of whose Jollof rice is superior, referred to as the “Jollof Wars” - an ongoing debate on which country’s version of Jollof tastes the greatest.

The prominent differences between Nigerian Jollof rice and Ghanaian Jollof rice are:

Nigerian:

· use long-grain rice

· use tomatoes

· use stock cubes

· use bay leaf

Ghanaian:

· use jasmine or basmati rice

· use bell pepper and chilies

· tends to be spicier

· use black pepper

· use crushed garlic cloves

The recipe I created is a bit of a fusion between Nigerian and Ghanaian Jollof rice.

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About this dish

Jollof rice is traditionally a very spicy dish. Through the addition of tomatoes, onion, pepper and spices, the dish also has a blast of savory flavors. The cooking style of this dish is almost identical to the Cajun dish jambalaya and is thought to be the possible origin of it.

This dish makes a great side for any meat like chicken, beef, fish or tofu! Adding vegetables would also be a wonderful contribution to the rice and adds to its nutritional value. Like all of my recipes, this meal can be made for meat-eaters, vegetarians and vegans alike. Please enjoy a taste of West Africa!

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Jollof Rice

Savory and spicy West African rice.

Notes

*If you like a lot of spice, I would recommend using a habanero or scotch bonnet pepper instead of jalapenos or add another 1/2 tsp of ground cayenne pepper to your rice.

*The rice should be parboiled (most in the store are, I just looked for cook times of about 15-20 minutes)

*For the stock, I used a no-salt added stock. Vegetable stock does give the dish a sweeter taste and accentuates the tomato base well.

*For my flavoring cubes, I used salt-free chicken bouillon packets for the meat-containing dish and vegetable base for the vegetarian/vegan version. You could also get a vegan chicken or beef flavored bouillon as well.

Ingredients

· 4 small tomatoes

· 2 red bell peppers

· 2 small onions (yellow or red) roughly chopped or sliced

· 2 jalapenos *see notes

· 2 large garlic cloves

· 2 tbsp neutral oil (I used avocado oil)

· 1 tbsp thyme leaves (dried or fresh)

· 1 tsp ginger

· 1 1/2 tsp curry powder

· 1/2 tsp black pepper

· 1/4 tsp cayenne *see notes

· 2-3 bay leaves

· 1/2 tsp salt

· 3 tbsp tomato paste

· 2 cups long-grain rice *see notes

· 2-4 cups stock (you can use vegetable or meat-based) *see notes

· 1-2 flavoring cubes *see notes

1. To create the base sauce, roughly chop the tomatoes, bell peppers and 1 onion, and blend them together in a blender or food processor until a smoother liquid forms. Add the jalapenos (or desired pepper) and garlic to the blender and blend until incorporated. (Your total blend time for everything should be around 1-2 minutes)

2. Heat a large pot to medium heat with the oil and add your other chopped onion. Saute this until the onion is mostly tender.

3. Now add the blended tomato base mixture to the large pot with the onions along with the thyme, ginger, curry powder, black pepper, cayenne, salt and bay leaves. Simmer this sauce until it thickens. This will take anywhere between 10-20 minutes based on how much water content your tomatoes have. (This will cook out the raw tomato taste. Be sure to cook the sauce until most water is evaporated.)

4. Once the sauce is thickened, add the tomato paste and continue to simmer/thicken the sauce for another minute or two. Stir in the rice until evenly coated and add 2 cups of stock and the flavoring cubes. Stir to incorporate all of the ingredients.

5. Cover the pot with a tight lid (an easy trick to make a lid tighter/better seal is to fold tinfoil and place it on top of the pot, then place the lid on top of the foil. A tight lid helps keep the flavor in better.) The rice may take up to 45 minutes to soften. Stir it occasionally to keep it from sticking and burning on the bottom of the pan. If the rice seems dry or not soft enough after the water has been absorbed, add extra stock by the 1/2 cup to cup full and continue to simmer. (For example, I added 1 more cup of stock after 15-20 minutes and stirred about every 5 minutes. I repeated this step after another 10 minutes to use a total of 4 cups of stock and simmered the rice for a full 45 minutes until tender).

6. Once the rice is tender or cooked to your preference, remove the pot from the heat and leave the rice uncovered for a few minutes. Enjoy this rice with chicken, beef, tofu or even just on its own!

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Nutrition

Jollof rice is a relatively healthy side dish. By using no added salt stocks and sodium free seasoning cubes, the dish remains lower in sodium. By cutting out butter and using less oil, this rice also has less fat content to it. The recommended serving is 1 cup which provides a healthy range of carbohydrates. The differences between the nutrition for the non-meat (vegetable stock and flavoring) versus meat dish (chicken stock and chicken bouillon) were little-to-none meaning this nutritional label represents the nutrition for either dish choice!

I hope you enjoy this recipe and post! Like always, feel free to reach out with any suggestions or comments! Thanks for reading. :)