Dish · ethiopian
Fufu
Fufu is starchy dough, here made from cassava, boiled soft and then pounded or beaten smooth into a stretchy, elastic mass eaten in torn pieces alongside soup.
Where it comes from
Pounding a boiled starch into dough is a technique found across Central and West Africa, developed around whatever starchy root or grain, cassava, yam, or plantain, grew locally and needed to be easy to swallow with soup.
What cooks argue about
The technical fight is texture: how long and hard the starch is pounded or beaten decides whether it turns smooth and stretchy enough to swallow without chewing, or stays lumpy and grainy.
Versions
Nobody has published a fufu here yet. When somebody cooks one from a video and publishes it, their version appears in this list, with a link back to the original.
What goes in it
Each one opens everything else made with it.
cassava
cassava flour