It was a beautiful Wednesday morning; the sun smiled its “greeting” to the people of Nkanchina No 2, East Gonja, Northern region, Ghana at the cooking demonstration site in the project area. Rural Commercial Women who are direct beneficiaries of the 4R dry season garden intervention were curious to learn the different cooking recipes.
Families came along with their cooking pots, saucepans and bowls, and ingredients as directed by the Women in Agriculture Development (WIAD) officer at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA). The demonstration started with a sensitization exercise by the 4R Gender Officer and the WIAD officer to explain the new recipes and their nutritional benefits to the women, children, and households.
The women would cook meals they already knew but with a little twist in their recipe. Soybean was the ingredient to diversify the meals prepared at the demonstration site. Families brought dry season garden vegetables, such as bean leaves, okra, pumpkin leaves, hibiscus leaves, etc in the meals.
Rural Commercial Women and other women outside the 4R project were surprised to see soybeans in multiple food recipes such as Tuo- Zaafi TZ, Tubani, Koose, and Bean leaf soup.
The team explained the soybean’s nutritional benefits and the vitamins they could give to their body. Participants learned how to make new meals such as soybean kebabs, soybean milk, Bean cake salad, soybean fufu, bean leaf soup with soybean, and soy sauce.
Men and women took turns to try their hands at the procedures, from stirring TZ to soybean milk to frying bean cake, and soybean kebab.
The outcome of these meals raised more interest among the women who participated in this demonstration. Women agreed to adopt these recipes at the household level to improve their nutritional status. Some Rural Commercial Women in the group identified business opportunities in some of these meal recipes and are ready to commercialize to sell and make some income to support their households.