Bobó de banana-da-terra (vegetarian version)
Creamy mashed cassava bound with coconut milk and *dendê*, in which plantains and vegetables simmer. Smooth, mild, and deeply fragrant, with no animal products.
Creamy mashed cassava bound with coconut milk and *dendê*, in which plantains and vegetables simmer. Smooth, mild, and deeply fragrant, with no animal products.
You know, over the years I learned to listen to my body like you listen to a *violão* you're tuning. I set aside the meat, kept the spirit. *Bobó* is normally with shrimp — but cassava, coconut, *dendê*, that's enough to sing Bahia. I let the *banana-da-terra* melt into it, sweet like a major chord, and I eat it quietly at midday, thinking that eating healthy is another way to respect the earth.
- •Cassava (aipim) — several roots (base purée)
- •Plantain — a few (melting garnish)
- •Coconut milk — milk of one coconut (creaminess)
- •Red palm oil (dendê) — a splash (flavor and color)
Bobó de banana-da-terra (vegetarian version)
Creamy mashed cassava bound with coconut milk and *dendê*, in which plantains and vegetables simmer. Smooth, mild, and deeply fragrant, with no animal products.
Why this dish? Having become an advocate of healthy and often vegetarian eating in his maturity, Gil enjoyed revisiting Bahian classics without shrimp: this plantain *bobó* keeps the *dendê* and cassava, the soul of Bahia, in an everyday dish.
You know, over the years I learned to listen to my body like you listen to a *violão* you're tuning. I set aside the meat, kept the spirit. *Bobó* is normally with shrimp — but cassava, coconut, *dendê*, that's enough to sing Bahia. I let the *banana-da-terra* melt into it, sweet like a major chord, and I eat it quietly at midday, thinking that eating healthy is another way to respect the earth.
Ingredients (period version)
- Cassava (aipim) — several roots (base purée)
- Plantain — a few (melting garnish)
- Coconut milk — milk of one coconut (creaminess)
- Red palm oil (dendê) — a splash (flavor and color)
Ingredients
- Fresh or frozen cassava — 600 g (base purée)
- Ripe plantains — 3 (melting garnish)
- Coconut milk — 400 ml (creaminess)
- Red palm oil (dendê) — 2 tbsp (flavor and color)
- Onion, garlic, tomato — 1 + 2 cloves + 2 (aromatic base)
- Red bell pepper — 1 (sweetness)
- Cilantro and green onion — 1 small bunch (freshness)
Method
- Cook the cassava in salted water until very tender, remove the central fiber, then blend with some of the coconut milk into a smooth purée.
- Sauté onion, garlic, bell pepper, and tomato in red palm oil.
- Add the plantain slices and let them brown for a few minutes.
- Stir in the cassava purée and the remaining coconut milk; simmer until creamy.
- Adjust salt, sprinkle with cilantro and green onion, serve with white rice.
How it was made : Traditional *bobó* (*bobó de camarão*) binds cassava with coconut milk and shrimp, a cross of Afro-indigenous heritage. The shrimp-free version presented here is a modern reconstruction, faithful to the base ingredients but adapted to a vegetarian diet like the one Gil adopted.
The contemporary twist : A single-bowl presentation, caramelized plantain slices fanned over the orange purée — simple, healthy, photogenic.
Gilberto Gil · Charactorium
