Sierra Leone’s national dish has poison, Cassava leaf is delicious and deadly - what you need to know!
Casada Lif (Cassava leaf) is Sierra Leone’s national dish but if prepared incorrectly this leaf could leave you ill or worse dead.
The cassava plant is consumed by 500,000 million people in 80 countries across the world including Sierra Leone. What makes it so poisonous is that both the leaves and root contain cyanogenic glycosides; chemicals that can be broken down to release hydrogen cyanide.
Ingesting cyanide stops your body’s cells from using oxygen, and when the cells die so do you.
While there is no recorded death from cyanide ingested from cassava poison in Sierra Leone, consuming trace amounts of cyanide over a long period of time has been “associated with the development of goiter and with tropical ataxic neuropathy, a nerve-damaging disorder that renders a person unsteady and uncoordinated.”
To remove the poison from cassava leaves or the root here is what you must do:
Boil the leaves until the green color turns to dark army green
Some people discard the water after boiling thier leaves
Boil, bake, roast, or fry it until it is tender and very well-cooked
No other leaf is as loved as cassava leaves but next time you’re diving into a hot plate of that green stuff over your rice, just remember that your leaves aren’t just delicious, they’re also deadly.
Why am I talking about cassava leaf you ask? Well, its a shameless plug for my show! When an all-new season of the Vickie Remoe Show premieres you’ll be treated to a step by step process of the making of cassava leaves. Until then check out the trailer for that episode shot in Bo District, Southern Province of Sierra Leone.
