Babenda

Babenda is a popular one-pot dish from Burkina Faso based on bitter greens such as spinach, kale, mustard greens, or swiss chard. What makes this dish quite interesting is the addition of fermented locust beans, called sumbala (or irú), imparting a pungent flavor that is reminiscent of blue cheese. Sumbala is additionally mashed together with smoked or dried fish in order to add some protein to the dish. The whole concoction is typically combined with rice to make babenda, a homogenous mass of bitter greens, soumbala, rice, and fish.