Ivory Coast | Soup

Placali Sauce Kope

Name: Placali Sauce Kope
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 75 min
Total time: 105 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Ivory Coast, West Africa
Ingredients: 900 g fermented cassava dough; 3 cups water, plus more as needed; 500 g okra, grated or finely chopped; 500 g beef, smoked fish, or crab, mixed protein; 1 large onion, chopped; 2 medium tomatoes, chopped; 2 whole hot peppers; 2 tbsp palm oil; 5 cups water or stock; salt, to taste

Ivorian fermented cassava placali served with slippery okra sauce, crab, smoked fish, meat, and chile.

Country

Ivory Coast

Region

West Africa

Time

105 min

Serves

Level

hard

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01 / Get ready

Everything you need

Tap each ingredient as you gather it. Illustrations are visual guides; follow the ingredient names and quantities.

Servings 6

Scale the dish before you shop, then use the checklist while you cook.

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Ingredients

For 6 servings

Soup

A few kitchen essentials

Suggested from the recipe method. Use equivalent equipment you have.

Lidded pot

Wooden spoon

02 / Let’s cook

One step at a time

Keep the rhythm calm, watch the texture, and adjust seasoning at the end.

Back to Ivory Coast

4 steps 30 min prep 75 min cook (check method) 105 min total hard

Cook proteins

Simmer meat or seafood with onion, tomato, pepper, and stock until tender.

protein 40:00

Add okra

Stir in grated okra and palm oil, then simmer until the sauce becomes glossy and lightly stretchy.

okra 15:00

Cook placali

Whisk cassava dough with water over medium heat, stirring constantly until translucent and elastic.

placali 18:00

Serve hot

Shape placali and serve with sauce kope spooned around it.

plate 03:00

Sauce kope may include crab, snails, beef feet, smoked fish, or only fish; placali can be bought ready-made or cooked from fermented cassava dough.

Cooking notes, photos & serving ideas

Recipe context

More about this dish

Serving ideas, regional context, and cooking cues for when you want more detail.

When to cook it

Best for weekend Ivorian tables and serious soup-and-swallow plates.. Plan on a hard cook. Allow about 105 minutes total.

What to serve alongside it

Extra chili, smoked fish, crab, or kplo if available.

Regional lane

Ivory Coast national table. A structured Ivory Coast dish in the AfroKitchen archive.

Chef watch-outs

Stopping the base before the pepper, onion, or spice edge has mellowed.
Thinning the pot before the body of the soup or stew has developed.
Rushing the rest or fermentation period.

How you know it is ready

The sauce should coat the spoon and taste rounded, not watery or raw.
The bread or batter should smell pleasantly fermented, toasted, or nutty rather than floury.
The aroma should smell rounded rather than raw or sharp.

Pantry lane

attieke, plantain, palm oil, scotch bonnet, eggplant

Recipe photos

See the dish before you cook

Take a closer look at the dish and its serving ideas.

Placali Sauce Kope recipe from Ivory Coast — Placali Sauce Kope finished dish

Chef board

Build the table around Placali Sauce Kope

Extra chili, smoked fish, crab, or kplo if available.

Best route from here

Ivory Coast national table

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