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Welcome to Celtnet's Oil Palm Recipes Page — The African Oil Palm is the source of a number of different oils, including red palm oil, which is an important cooking ingredient and flavouring in West African cuisines.
Here you will find information about the tamarillo plant and the uses of it's fruit, as well as seeing the web's largest collection of tamarillo-based recipes. |
The African Oil Palm Elaeis guineensis originates in Guinea, but is now naturalized throughout West Africa. It is a tall monocotyledonous flowering plant that's a member of the Arecaceae (Palm) family. Typically it will grow to 20m in height and bears long pinnate leaves at its crown, each between 3–5m in length. Flowers are produced in dense clusters, with each individual flower being small and bearing three sepals and three petals. The fruit is reddish and shiny (about the size of a Brazil nut) and develops in large bunches (which can weigh up to 30kg in total). The fruit takes five to six months to mature from pollination to maturity; it comprises an oily, fleshy outer layer (the pericarp), with a single whitish seed (kernel), which is also rich in oil. Both the pulp and seeds produce oil, with 22 kilograms of palm oil and 1.6 kilograms of palm kernel oil typically being extracted for each 100kg of fruit.
The image, left shows mature palm trees (left) along with a single fruit cluster (right, top) and a collection of isolated fruit as they are sold in markets (bottom, right). The isolated fruit are used to produce culinary red oil (described below).
The tree is highly productive and can yield as much as 7,250 litres per hectare per year; which has made this tree the primary source of vegetable oil in many tropical countries. The pericarp oil is mainly used for cooking and the kernel oil is used for processed foods and cosmetics.
In West Africa, however, kernel oil is produced by hand. The fruit is often sold in markets (this being the whole fruit) and is boiled in water until the water part evaporates. The residue is then pressed to extract a reddish-orange oil known as 'red palm oil'. This is a very important part of West African cookery that's used more as a flavouring than a cooking oil (it can be bought in just about any market). It is also used as a condiment poured over simple meals such as fried fish and boiled rice.
The flavour is rich and interesting and certainly lifts the flavour of just about any meal.
Alphabetical list of oil palm-based recipes follow (limited to 100 recipes per page). There are 208 recipes in total:
| Aadun Origin: Nigeria | Beef with Calabash Nutmegs Origin: Nigeria | Efere Usung Udia Origin: Nigeria |
| Abacha (Nigerian Cassava Salad) Origin: Nigeria | Black-eyed Beans and Plantains in Palm Oil Origin: Nigeria | Efo (Vegetable Soup) Origin: Nigeria |
| Abacha Ncha (Dried Cassava with Garden Eggs) Origin: Nigeria | Boeuf aux Chocolat Gabonnaise (Beef with Gabon Chocolate) Origin: Gabon | Efo-riro (Vegetable Stew) Origin: Nigeria |
| Abak (Palm Nut Soup) Origin: Nigeria | Boeuf aux Feuilles de Manioc (Beef with Cassava Leaves) Origin: Congo | Eggs with Efo (Vegetable Soup with Eggs) Origin: Nigeria |
| Abak Atama Soup Origin: Nigeria | Boeuf aux Mangues Sauvages (Beef in Ogbono Sauce) Origin: Central Africa | Eka Oka (Corn Fritters) Origin: Nigeria |
| Abala Origin: Nigeria | Boiled Pork Origin: Sao Tome | Ekoki Origin: Cameroon |
| Abenkwan (Palm Oil Soup) Origin: Ghana | Borokhé Origin: Mali | Ekpang Nkukwo Origin: Nigeria |
| Adalu (Bean and Sweetcorn Pottage) Origin: Nigeria | Boulets de Poulet avec Sauce Rouge (Chicken Meatballs with Red Sauce) Origin: Benin | Ekuru with Ata Sauce (Steamed Savoury Beans with Ata Sauce) Origin: Nigeria |
| Adun Origin: Nigeria | Burundian Beef and Greens in Peanut Sauce Origin: Burundi | Ewa Adalu Origin: Nigeria |
| Afang Soup Origin: Nigeria | Calalu Origin: Benin | Ewa Agoyin Origin: Nigeria |
| Ago Glain Origin: Benin | Calulu Carne Seca (Dried Meat Calulu) Origin: Angola | Ewa II Origin: Nigeria |
| Agushi Soup (Ghanaian Egusi Soup) Origin: Ghana | Calulu de Cabara (Goat Meat Calulu) Origin: Angola | Ewa-Ebe Origin: Nigeria |
| Akara (Black-eyed Pea Fritters) Origin: Congo | Calulu de Camarão (Prawn Calulu) Origin: Angola | Feuille de Manioc (Central African Cassava Leaves) Origin: Central Africa |
| Akara Awon (Black-eyed Pea Fritters with Okra) Origin: Congo | Calulu de Peixe (Fish Calulu) Origin: Angola | Fish and Greens Origin: Central Africa |
| Akoumain Salé (Salted Akoumain) Origin: Cote dIvoire | Capitaine and Pili-Pili in Palm Oil Origin: Congo | Fresh Fish Stew with Tomatoes Origin: Nigeria |
| Akpessi de Bananes (Plantain Akpessi) Origin: Cote dIvoire | Caruru do Par (Prawn and Okra Starter) Origin: Brazil | Fried Ata Sauce Origin: Nigeria |
| Akume with Ademe Sauce Origin: Togo | Cassava Leaf Soup Origin: Liberia | Fried Fish in Peanut Sauce Origin: Cameroon |
| Alapa (Palm-oil Stew) Origin: Nigeria | Cassava Soup Origin: Liberia | Fried Ribwort Plantain Sauce Origin: African Fusion |
| Aloco Origin: Cote dIvoire | Chévre aux Feuilles de Manioc (Goat Meat with Cassava Leaves) Origin: Congo | Galo Soup Origin: Liberia |
| Aloco avec Tilapia (Tilapia with Plantain Chips and Tomato Sauce) Origin: Cote dIvoire | Cocoyam Pottage Origin: Nigeria | Gari aux Crevettes (Prawns with Gari) Origin: Cameroon |
| Aloko Origin: Cote dIvoire | Collards and Cabbage Origin: Liberia | Gbegiri (Bean Stew) Origin: Nigeria |
| Amashaza mu gitoke (Peas with Plantains) Origin: Uganda | Country Chop Origin: Liberia | Gbure Soup (Waterleaf Soup) Origin: Nigeria |
| Angolan Feijoada Origin: Angola | Coupé Coupé Gabonnaise Origin: Gabon | Ghanaian Fresh Fish Stew Origin: Ghana |
| Apon Soup (Ogbono Soup) Origin: Nigeria | Cowpea Stew Origin: Ghana | Green Stew Origin: Nigeria |
| Asaro II (Yam Porridge) Origin: Nigeria | Curried Rice with Beef Origin: Ghana | Guinean Fish Grill with Three Sauces Origin: Equatorial Guinea |
| Ata Dindin Origin: Nigeria | Dahomey Fish Stew Origin: Benin | Guinean Spinach Sauce Origin: Equatorial Guinea |
| Bananas with Split Green Peas Origin: Rwanda | Dried Cassava Leaf Soup Origin: Liberia | Huitres Azi Dessi (Fried Oysters with Chilli, Smoked Prawns and Peanut Sauce) Origin: Togo |
| Banga Soup Origin: Nigeria | Dry Rice and Fish Origin: Liberia | Igbo MoinMoin Origin: Nigeria |
| Banga Soup with Bitterleaf (Palm Nut Soup with Bitterleaf) Origin: British | Dundu Origin: Nigeria | Ikokore Origin: Nigeria |
| Bean Soup Origin: Liberia | Dundun Oniyeri (Fried Yam) Origin: Nigeria | Ila Alasepo (Okra and Spinach Soup) Origin: Nigeria |
| Beans and Bananas Origin: Burundi | Edikang Ikong Soup Origin: Nigeria | Isi Ewu (Spiced Goat Head) Origin: Nigeria |
| Beans Gravy Origin: Liberia | Editan Soup Origin: Nigeria | Isombe Origin: Rwanda |
| Beef and Cassava Leaf Soup Origin: Liberia | Editan Soup II Origin: Nigeria | |
| Beef and Mushrooms in Peanut Sauce Origin: Central African Republic | Eeyo Soup (Jute Leaf Soup) Origin: Nigeria |
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