Going vegan? Here’s our curated list of seven delicious traditional Luhya vegan dishes to try out. With love, from the Luhya of Kenya, bubwoba to mrenda, tasty nutritious choices for a vegetarian diet.
When I try recalling my late grandfather’s diet, I realize that animal protein was if present in traces. He didn’t do milk and because in his nineties he had lost most of his teeth, no beef. His occasional meal of chicken had to be properly tenderized with munyu mushelekha.
As a result, I almost only saw my grandparents thrive well beyond their seventies on a largely vegetarian diet. Their vegetarian lives was a matter of choice and circumstance, more of the latter I must admit. Nonetheless, the following delicious Luhya vegan dishes dominated their diet. They are highly nutritious options for those who for whichever reason have chosen a vegetarian diet.
Traditional vegetables
Luhya traditional vegetables are an obvious choice to start your vegetarian culinary trip of Luhya traditional vegan dishes. Obvious, yes, but the options! There are over fifteen different options, and that’s even before one considers the medley on offer when one decides to combine these vegetables to generate flavor and texture profiles that are distinct from the individual veggies.
Get started by educating yourself on the nutritional value, cultural importance and suggestions on combinations in our comprehensive article: Meet 15+ different Luhya traditional vegetables – Try our simple tasty recipes, nutritional info, trivia, photos and more.
Sifulukho
Sifuluko is a traditional groundnut sauce delight. It is made by roasting and then pounding to paste groundnuts. The groundnut paste is then cooked into a thick sauce that is enjoyed with boiled plantains, ugali, rice and even chapati. Learn how to make sifuluko through my grandma’s recipe, or my own contemporary take on sifuluko.
Kamasikhisikhi
Kamasikhisikhi is simsim that has been roasted and then pound into paste. It can be cooked into a sauce that goes well with plantains, obusuma or any starch of your liking. Moreover, kamasikhisikhi is a versatile traditional Luhya vegan dish that can also used to flavor other foods – notably likhubi (kunde, cowpeas leaves). Learn how to make kamasikhisikhi.
Bubwoba (Wild mushrooms)
Wild mushrooms (bubwoba) are my personal favorite of the traditional Luhya vegetarian dishes. When mushrooms grow in the right soils, they are a good source of Vitamin B12 an important nutrient often missing in vegan diets. To get the best out of bubwoba, one first has to appreciate the different types of wild mushrooms, their flavor profiles and where to source them. Then try out either our 100 year old mushroom recipe or our contemporary Kenyan mushroom recipe. Either way, feel free to substitute ingredients to match your vegetarian lifestyle as necessary. And if you are not a strict vegetarian, our beef tallow mushroom recipe should interest you.
Muduya or Shitienyi
Among these Luhya traditional vegan dishes, the bean stew muduya in Kimaragoli or shitienyi in Lwisukha splits opinion.
( Remember that beans are a good source of iron and also supply calcium and zinc which often lacks in vegan diets.)
Those who love muduya do so to death. Some of those who meet it for the first time are overpowered by its intense flavor. With practice in the kitchen, I have come to learn that the secret is all in the munyu. Titrate your munyu to suit the palates of your guests. Also be at liberty to experiment with spices for interesting flavor profiles. Learn how to make muduya or shitienyi.
Mushenye
Mushenye is mash made from boiled seasoned sweet potatoes and boiled beans. It is a food of immense cultural value among several houses of Mulembe, notably the Maragoli and Isukha-Idakho- Tiriki triumvirate. Served with tea at breakfast or as a starch alternative at lunch or dinner, mushenye is reserved for special occasions such as weddings.
Katogo
This is a dish that’s more common across the border among our Masaba cousins, Samia of Uganda and others. Katogo is basically sifuluko, but with chrome rims, hydraulics, tint windows and a multi-money sound system.
As seen the picture, you can jazz up your sifuluko with enyama esike, simple beef, mutton, goat, chicken or pretty much anything you can think of. Over in Uganda, katogo is the defacto breakfast meal and it comes as varied as you can imagine.
I once enjoyed one that had matumbo (tripe) and it remains one of the best things I have ever eaten. For vegetarian options, why not try some mushrooms in your katogo?