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Epicurious
Bon Appétit

Mbahal

By Pierre Thiam
Mbahal recipe
Photograph by Jenny Huang, food styling by Rebecca Jurkevich, prop styling by Linden Elstran

If you’re looking for a big bowl of West African comfort, look no further than Mbahal, a popular Senegambian rice dish made with peanuts, black-eyed peas, and okra. “It’s the dish that every single [Senegalese] household has a recipe for,” says chef Pierre Thiam, cofounder of Yolélé Foods. Mbahal—whose name comes from the Wolof verb for boiling—gets its creamy risotto-like texture from simmering rice in a spicy tomato-peanut sauce until it thickens.

What you’ll need

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