Sauce au Gombos (Okra in Sauce)

Along with Mafe, "Le To Sauce Gombos" is another favorite dish of Salif Keita.

The "To" in this dish is a dumpling made of millet and/or corn flour, and it is eaten with Sauce Gombos, which is an okra stew. To be more picnic-friendly, we decided to eat it with French bread, which was delicious. For the To recipe, see the link for "To Sauce Gombos" in the notes below.

Prep Time10

Cook Time40

CourseSoup

CuisineWest African

KeywordMalian, Okra, Picnic

Ingredients

2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 ½ cups onion diced
2 lbs fresh okra with tops removed and chopped small (or grated)
1/4 tsp salt (and more to taste)
2 tsp Soumbala Soup A very typical condiment in West Africa. There is no substitute that I can find, but I did use 4 tbsp white miso to get a bit of fermented taste and it was great.
2 cups chicken broth hot

Instructions

Heat a large pan over medium heat. When hot, add the oil, and then the diced onion, and cook until the onion begins to brown.
Add the okra and salt and cook, stirring only occasionally to allow the okra to stick to the bottom and brown a bit.
Once the okra is soft and has browned a bit, add the Soumbala (or miso), and stir to combine. Then add 1/2 cup of the hot broth and scrape up the browned bits. When there are no more browned bits, add the remaining broth and cook until okra is soft and soup is combined.

Notes

Recipe for "To," which is Salif Keita's favorite accompaniment for Sauce Gombos: https://www.burkina-faso.ca/plat-national-du-burkina-le-to-sauce-gombos/

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