Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Matapa
Cassava leaves stewed with peanuts, coconut, and prawns, one of Mozambique's most cherished national dishes.
Mozambican · medium · serves 4
prep 20 min · cook 60 min
~733 cal · 30g protein · 63g carbs · 44g fat · 9g fiber · 10g sugars · 22g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Matapa is one of Mozambique's most emblematic dishes, a rich, green stew of pounded leaves cooked down with peanuts and coconut. It is everyday food and celebration food alike, reflecting the country's coastal bounty and its deep African and Indian Ocean roots.
Young leaves are pounded and simmered slowly with ground peanuts, garlic, and until soft, thick, and creamy, then enriched with prawns or crab from the Indian Ocean coast. Served over rice or with xima (maize porridge), it is nutty, rich, and deeply savoury. Where leaves are scarce, spinach or other greens stand in.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
1 lb leaves or spinach, finely pounded
2 tomatoes, chopped
3/4 cup peanuts, ground (or peanut butter)
8 oz prawns
1 1/2 cups
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
Instructions
1
Pound the leaves with the garlic until they break down to a coarse green paste, then simmer them with the onion and tomato and a little water until soft.
✎ Chef’s note
Pounding rather than simply chopping is what gives matapa its texture. The leaves should collapse into a paste, not stay as recognisable pieces.
2
Toast the peanuts until golden before grinding them, then stir them in and cook until the mixture thickens.
✎ Chef’s note
Cook the greens and peanuts down slowly until thick and creamy; matapa should be rich and almost purée-like, not watery.
3
Add the coconut milk and the prawns and simmer until the prawns are cooked and the stew is rich.
4
Season and serve over rice or with maize porridge.
Mozambican coastal tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Maputo. The dish Mozambicans name first is not the prawns visitors come for. Matapa is cassava leaves pounded in a mortar and simmered slowly in coconut milk with ground peanut, and it is eaten over xima, the stiff maize porridge that is the everyday staple here.
🗺️
Mozambique. For much of the twentieth century Mozambique was the world's leading producer of cashews, responsible at its height for around half of global output, and Africa's first industrial cashew processing plant opened here in 1960. War, nationalisation and structural adjustment collapsed the industry, and the country now grows a small fraction of the world's crop, though the nut still turns up in the cooking.
🌍
Africa. Africa's fifty-four nations hold cuisines as different as Morocco's slow-cooked tagines and South Africa's open-fire braai, yet shared threads run through them: ancient grains like millet, sorghum, and teff; stews thickened with groundnut, okra, or palm; and fiery condiments from Tunisian harissa to Ethiopian berbere. Staple starches, fufu, injera, ugali, couscous, anchor communal meals often eaten by hand from a shared dish, where hospitality is a point of honor.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Mozambique
Frango à ZambezianaChicken marinated in lemon, garlic and piri-piri with coconut milk, then grilled slowly over calm coals and basted with more coconut until it is gold outside and soft within.
Frango Piri-PiriButterflied chicken grilled under a lemon-garlic piri-piri baste, the original of a dish the world now queues for.
BadjiasCrisp Mozambican chickpea-flour fritters flecked with onion and served with fiery piri-piri.
Browse all Mozambique recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
Make it a Mozambique meal
Sumo de MúcuaDrink
Bolo PolanaDessert
Camarão Grelhado (Grilled LM Prawns)Dinner
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Frequently asked questions
What is Matapa?
Cassava leaves stewed with peanuts, coconut, and prawns, one of Mozambique's most cherished national dishes.
Where does Matapa come from?
Matapa is a Mozambican dish from Maputo, Mozambique.
Can Matapa be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Matapa recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Matapa safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Matapa take to make?
About 80 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 60 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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