The garden egg sauce is a very nutritious fruit stew often served as a sauce over foods from the root and tuber food group such as Yam, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. It can be eaten with plantain, rice and a variety of carbohydrate rich foods. It is made from boiled and mashed garden eggplants prepared with other ingredients like tomatoes, onions and peppers and usually accompanied with fish or other proteins. To add extra flavor, smoked fish is sometimes used in its preparation.
Making the garden egg sauce is not difficult. You can start by adding some oil to your pot. Your tomatoes, peppers and onions can be nicely chopped or blended and fried in the oil. Garlic,ginger and onions are a great addition and you can sauté them in the oil before adding your blended pepper mix or you can blend with the other peppers. Your fish, boiled or grilled and shredded, can be added to the stew. Of course your herbs and spices would have gone into it by now. The boiled garden egg is often peeled and mashed but you can decide to retain the skin especially because of the great compounds in the skin. Pour the mashed garden eggs into the pot and stir. Allow to simmer.
This great sauce can add variety to your family meals. It also gives you not just nutrients but phytochemicals that are beneficial to the body.
Garden eggs are not so expensive and can be an affordable way to keep your family on a nutritious meal plan. Locust beans (Iru, ogiri, dawadawa) are rich in protein and would be a good addition into the sauce as a cheaper sauce of protein or in accompaniment with other plant protein sources.
