Pounded Cassava Leaves
Katapa
Photo: T.K. Naliaka / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Fresh cassava leaves naturally contain cyanogenic compounds, which is exactly why katapa is pounded and boiled at length before it's safe to eat.
Young cassava leaves are pounded fine in a mortar and pestle, then boiled for hours and finished with tomato, onion and oil into a soft, deep-green relish. It's a common side at nsima meals around Chipata and across Eastern Province.
Why it's made this way: Cassava grows reliably in Eastern Province's soils even when maize struggles, so its leaves became as valuable a food source as its roots — pounding and long boiling break down compounds in the raw leaf that would otherwise be unsafe.
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