Ingredients: (serves 2-4)

Safou

Courgette

Butternut

Garlic

Fresh rosemay

Sweet potatos

Soy sauce

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Method & Cooking time mins 20-30 mins

Wash, chop and add to a roasting dish the equal amounts of sweet potato, butternut and courgette.

Break up a garlic and add the cloves with the outer skin still on. Add fresh rosemary and dash of olive oil, season with salt and pepper.

Place in the oven to start roasting. Meanwhile prepare the safou. Wash and make 4 light vertical cuts from top to bottom (as if making 4 segments). Season with a splash of soy sauce and add to the roasted veggies after 10 mins. Roast for a further 20-30 mins ! Serve with a side salad and ginger & lime vinaigrette !

© Malcolm Riley

Safou (Dacryodes edulis)

In west and central Africa, Safou (sometimes call African plum on account of its purple colour) is probably the most important out of many indigenous fruits in the local markets and cuisine.

It is perhaps best described as being like the combination of an avocado and an olive and typically it is roasted and eaten as a vegetable.

It is highly nutritious and widely grown in homegardens and in cocoa fields. Like all other wild fruits around the tropics, there is huge tree-to-tree variation in fruit size, colour, taste, and nutrient contents.

Local markets recognize this variation and so to improve the potential for poor smallholder farmers to increase their income from Safou,

I have been involved in working with farmers to help them to simply and rapidly develop cultivated varieties and so to improve their own lives.

To learn more about this you can read my book “Living with the Trees of Life” published by CABI in 2012.

With Malcolm (The African Chef), I am discussing ways that we can further help local people in Cameroon to store and use Safou fruits so that it’s nutritional and poverty-alleviating benefits can be further enhanced.

Dr Roger Leakey

International Tree Foundation

(Click links for more information)