Dona Gui at work in her kitchen of Hotel Foya-Branca on the island of Sao Vicente

A friend of mine decided to go and spend two months to write in Cape Verde, the former Portuguese archipelago of 10 islands in the Atlantic, just west of Senegal. It is an independent republic since 1975 and uses Portuguese as its national language. And he came back with a fabulous recipe for banana soup, something that can be made easily in any country. Since bananas are with avocado the ultimate pleasurable fruit (to me), I immediately tried the recipe with two friends who came for lunch. And the success was total. The chef is Dona Gui and she works in hotel Foya-Branca on the island of San Vicente near the village of San Pedro. 

Banana cream with curry by Dona Gui

Here are the ingredients for 8 persons

• 1 kg of very ripe banana
• 250 gr chicken breast boneless
• 250 gr potatoes
• ½ dl olive oil
• 200 gr onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 tablespoon of curry
• ½ teaspoon of cumin
• ½ chicken stock cube
• water, salt and hot pepper

Method of preparation – cooking time: 30 minutes

Cut the onion, garlic, and chicken into pieces. In a pan, fry the onion and garlic with olive oil, then add the chicken. Season with salt, pepper, the curry and cumin. Add the cooked potatoes and the bananas which you will have sauteed before hand and 50 cl of water. Let it cook for 20 minutes. When they are cooked, pass everything through a blender. Serve with banana slices to decorate.

You can also make it without the chicken or the garlic. The importance is to keep a good balance between onions, potatoes and bananas. Serve warm.