Food is another important componente of Angolan culture, so we will share a new Angolan recipe every month in this section. We are aware that it’s not always possible to find the exact same ingredients all over the world, so for those ingredients that may be a little more difficult to find we’ll try to put some possible alternatives. We hope you try these recipes at home and we’d love to hear/see the results: you can use the #joinangola hashtag when posting pictures of your Angolan dishes!

Mienguelecas de maxanana (North) or lombì (South)

This is a traditional dish from the regions of the South and East of the country. Mienguelecas is usually prepared to accompany meat or fish and funji.   

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Mienguelecas

Type of dish: vegetarian – accompanying dish

 

INGREDIENTS

  • Pumpkin leaves

  • Onions

  • Garlic (according to taste)

  • Tomatoes

  • Salt

A pot full of green leaves mixed with pieces of tomatoes.

PREPARATION

Half-cooked green leaves with pieces of tomatoes.
While they’re being cooked…

Clean the pumpkin leaves well, removing the threads from the stems at both ends, then cut them. In a pot, put some water and salt. When the water is boiling, add the leaves and keep boiling them for another 5 minutes, until they become soft. After this time, remove the leaves (while keeping the water).

In a pan, fry the onions with the tomatoes for a few minutes, then add the leaves with the cooking water. Finish cooking by kneading the leaves. When the mienguelecas are well kneaded in the pan, turn the stove off and serve hot.

There is another version of this recipe that includes the use of okra, which is cooked separately and then joined with the mienguelecas in the final stage.

 

 

 

Written by: Maria Vittoria Moretti

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