Abunuabunu: Ghanaian Green Soup with Leafy Greens and Smoked Fish

A Ghanaian green soup that fills the kitchen with a fresh, leafy smell

The grassy smell of chopping greens puts you in a different mood than a pot of miso soup or a stew. Roughly chop mustard spinach, spinach and kale, return them to a pot where eggplant and tomato have been simmering, and the soup turns a deep green all at once. Layer on canned mackerel standing in for smoked fish, plus the aroma of dried shrimp, and a home kitchen can get remarkably close to Ghana's abunuabunu (also spelled ebunuebunu).

Abunuabunu is a Ghanaian green soup made with cocoyam leaves, known as kontomire. In English it is sometimes simply called green soup, and it is eaten with fufu, banku, rice or sometimes boiled yam. It looks like a gentle soup of greens, but its backbone isn't only the leaves. Smoked fish, dried fish, dried shrimp, chile and garden eggs (a small eggplant relative) build up into a soup with enough body to carry fufu.

The hard parts to source outside Ghana are kontomire and smoked fish. Kontomire is close to taro leaves, but it is hard to find for most home cooks and takes some practice to handle. This recipe combines komatsuna (Japanese mustard spinach), spinach and kale, splitting the jobs of green flavor, tenderness and a light bitterness among them. Real smoked fish is best if you can get it, but canned mackerel in water plus ground dried shrimp gets you realistically close with an ordinary grocery run.

Abunuabunu at the family table in Bono

Abunuabunu is known as a dish of the Bono region in west-central Ghana (formerly part of Brong-Ahafo), a soup long cooked in Akan homes, and especially by the Bono people. The name "ebunu ebunu" is usually explained as meaning "green, green," and the color of the boiled, mashed cocoyam leaves is exactly what defines the dish.

At the table, fufu or banku is the classic pairing. What goes into the pot varies from family to family: smoked fish, snails, goat, chicken and so on. Ghanaian households in cities or abroad also use spinach in place of cocoyam leaves. To recreate it at home, the shortcut is to combine several kinds of greens for that fresh aroma and bitterness, and to keep the color by not overcooking.

Ghanaian soups include tomato-based light soup, palm nut soup made from the fruit of the oil palm, and groundnut soup made with peanuts; among them, abunuabunu is the one where the green of the leaves takes center stage. In Ghana, small eggplants called turkey berries and the savory depth of smoked fish are part of it. Here, easy-to-find eggplant and canned mackerel take over those roles.

Ingredients (serves 4)

Ingredients that can be tricky to shop for

Hunting for kontomire itself makes the shopping hard. For a first try, buy the greens at an ordinary supermarket and source only the seafood savoriness at the heart of the dish and the fufu from an African grocery or online; that is the more reliable route.

Dried shrimp backs up the ocean aroma of smoked and dried fish. Ground finely, it blends into the whole soup and adds a depth canned mackerel alone can't give. If shellfish is fine for you, don't leave it out; it is what makes the soup taste like abunuabunu.

Abunuabunu makes the most sense eaten with fufu or banku rather than as a soup on its own. On days when there is no time to make fufu from scratch, a fufu mix makes it easy to experience scooping up green soup.

Red palm oil is an aromatic here, not the star. Even 2 tsp brings a West African red-palm aroma in between the seafood and the greens. On days when you want to keep the color as green as possible, use rice bran oil, then add palm oil little by little the next time.

Keeping the green bright

Where abunuabunu most often goes wrong is the balance between the green flavor and the seafood. Cook the greens too long and the color darkens, and the leafy aroma turns heavy. Add the greens too late, on the other hand, and they never meld with the seafood broth; the soup ends up tasting like a plain greens purée.

The order to stick to: build the chicken-and-eggplant base first, then turn the greens into a paste and return them over low heat. Simmering the eggplant until soft gives the green paste a natural roundness. Too much tomato pushes the color toward reddish brown, so keep it to 1 tomato for 4 servings.

Red palm oil is easier to manage in this dish if you don't overdo it. In Nigerian egusi soup (in Japanese) or Ghanaian groundnut soup (in Japanese) the oil is a big presence, but in abunuabunu the green of the leaves is the star. Use 2 tsp for aroma, and if you want more, add just a few drops right before eating.

Serving, storing and reheating

To eat it the way it's eaten in Ghana, pinch off a small piece of fufu, coat it in soup and swallow it rather than chew. It's fine to chew the first time, but fufu isn't a staple that gains flavor with chewing; it's a dough for carrying the soup. With slightly sour banku (in Japanese), the green flavor and seafood aroma tighten up a little. With rice, serving the soup separately in a deep bowl and combining a little at a time makes the saltiness easier to manage than pouring soup over the rice.

Refrigerate for up to 2 days. Because it contains seafood and greens, don't leave it at room temperature for long; once it has cooled slightly, move it to a storage container. Reheat in a small pot over low heat for 5 minutes, or in the microwave at 600 W in 1 minute 30 second bursts, checking as you go. A hard boil darkens the green, so stop as soon as it steams and the surface starts to bubble gently.

For a menu, cooking Ghana's waakye (in Japanese) or red red (in Japanese) on another day shows the differences among beans, rice, staples and soups. If you want to compare West African greens soups, Cameroon's ndolé (in Japanese) heads in a similar direction. Ndolé, though, is strong on bitterness and peanuts, while abunuabunu puts the outline of leaves and seafood further forward.

FAQ

If I can get kontomire, can I use it as is?

Yes, but taro-family leaves need care. Remove the tough, stringy parts and cook them thoroughly before using. For a first try, it's easier to make the soup with everyday greens, get a feel for the flavor, and then move on to Ghanaian ingredients.

What if I use smoked fish instead of canned mackerel?

Break 120 g smoked fish into large flakes and add it in step 5. If it is very salty, cut the salt back to 1 tsp before tasting. If the fish has a lot of bones, remove the large ones before adding it.

Without red palm oil, is it a different dish?

Not entirely. The heart of abunuabunu is the green of the leaves and the savoriness of the seafood. Red palm oil adds aroma and a West African roundness, so on days when color comes first, or in households that don't care for the oil, the soup still works with rice bran oil.

Can I make it mild for the family?

Yes. Halve the green chile, remove the seeds and simmer it. If you only want its aroma, add it whole in step 2 and take it out before step 4. For anyone who wants more heat later, a little chile paste at the table is the safer route at home.

Is it worth making without fufu?

Yes. It's good with white rice, boiled potatoes or steamed taro. With fufu or banku, though, you understand why the soup needs this thickness. Making it with white rice the first time and pairing it with fufu next time if you like it is perfectly fine.

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