Ghanaian Smoked Tuna & Broccoli Stew Recipe
Smoked tuna is a highly prized fish in Ghana. If anyone gifts me one full smoked tuna I’d be in my happy place for a whole month! It is an expensive fish and one whole smoked fish can feed a family of four for 3 weeks thanks to it’s dense flesh. There are several varieties of Tuna in Ghana with the Skipjack variety being the more popular one you’d find in our markets.
I recently bought a half-tuna at the nearest neighborhood market for 60 cedis! I was wondering if I was being cheated, as I haven’t bought smoked tuna in a while. The plan was to make a simple nutritious tuna tomato sauce with broccoli. Broccoli in Ghana is honestly too expensive! I understand that it’s imported but ebei! If not for my daughter’s love for them i’d never but then again I’ve gain lots of key vitamins and minerals from them eh! A vegetable so healthy it literally looks like a tree!
Every woman in her thirties to forties needs alot of greens in their diet especially because of how erratic our hormones behave as we grow older. Greens like bok choy, broccoli, spinach are rich in Iron, Vitamin A, have anti-inflammatory properties which our bodies desperately needs . Greens combined with nuts and other fibers are my literal hack for reducing bloating and staying stronger.
Maybe chalk it down to 40+ lifestyle but I am appreciating simple yet wholesome meals more often nowadays. Just like this recipe. This tomato sauce comes together just in 35-40 minutes from beginning to end. I decided to chop the tomatoes instead of blending it into a puree. Chopped tomatoes gives better texture and flavour as compared to blended tomatoes, try it out and see!
Ingredients:
You’ll need to grind in an asanka or spice mortar:
Coriander seeds
Dried rosemary
Tumeric
2-3 Garlic cloves
Ginger
salt
Dried chilli
Sauce Ingredients:
4-5 medium-sized tomatoes
2 whole onions sliced
3 whole chilli peppers chopped
1/2 or quartered smoked tuna
4 large broccoli florets separated into smaller sizes
Cooking Instructions:
Grind spices until smooth.
Pour 1/2 cup of vegetable oil into a deep saucepan and add in the onions when oil is slightly hot. Cook down the onions to sweeten and scoop the ground spices into the pan. These spices are excellent for any fish stew or curry.
Add chopped tomatoes and peppers and give it a stir, lower heat & cover. Stir through after every 5 minutes.
Wash the tuna, take out any visible bones and break it into medium-sized chunks. Place the tuna into the tomato sauce and cover to cook, stirring occasionally.
After five minutes, add the broccoli florets into the sauce as it nears it’s readiness. This ensures they have a beautiful tender bite instead of being overcooked & losing nutrients. Thicken the sauce with three spoons of cornstarch slurry.
Serve hot and enjoy with either rice, potatoes, flatbread, waakye or ripe plantain. Whatever side you want 😄.
This stew is warm, flavourful, tasty and filled with good food textures from the broccoli, the smoked tuna and the tomatoes. I love it so much and hope you will too!
Cooking Tips:
Smoked tuna is mostly salted before being smoked so be mindful when adding salt to the sauce.
Always maintain a medium-low heat to prevent burning and losing out on nutrients.
Cover saucepan to retain moisture in the stew.
Remove the saucepan cover if the stew is too watery. This allows more moisture to drain out.
