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Showcasing Cassava Flour and helping create a sustainable future for African farm workers

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With the Greenwich Co-operative Development Agency (GCDA) we’re proud to be the first UK importers of the fully traceable product, originating from the NRI’s project “Cassava Adding Value for Africa”.

Andrew Westby and Ben Bennett

Cassava sausages

The Pod at Borough Market

Last week our Natural Resources Institute (NRI) launched the High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) at Borough Market, with a cookery demo featuring Chef Manpreet from Café Spice who cooked onion bhajis and vegetarian sausages using the flour. Borough Market traders also experimented making gnocchi, Brazilian cheese balls and brownies which were available for shoppers and visitors to try.

Cassava is a starchy root crop native to South America which is grown throughout the developing world. The flour was sourced from a factory in Nigeria supported by one of NRI's projects "Cassava Adding Value for Africa" and will help create a sustainable future for African farm workers, in some of the poorest parts of the world.  It's a super-flour in lots of ways, being gluten free and helping gut health with its high levels of resistant starch and good levels of fibre.

The pictures below show Professor Andrew Westby, Director of the NRI and Professor Ben Bennett, Deputy Director of the NRI, Chef Manpreet's vegetarian cassava sausages with vegetables and the event space inside the Pod at Borough Market.