Ground Provision Pie

It's pie time. Everyone loves a good casserole, don't they? I sure know I do.

In most West Indian homes, pies are pulled out and made especially for Sunday dinners. And Sunday dinners are a big thing in Caribbean homes.

It's usually ram packed with everything you can think of. From stew chicken, stew peas, macaroni pie, some kind of rice, callaloo, ground provision and some mauby. A lot right?

Traditionally we just boil our ground provisions to eat them, but sometimes you want it in a different form, and here it is.

What is ground provision?

I've had a few people ask me what exactly is ground provision.

What we call ground provision in the West Indies is really tubular root vegetables. These vegetables are grown below ground while they mature and are eventually dug up from the ground to harvest.

Things that are considered ground provision include sweet potatoes (yam), tania, cassava (yucca), eddoes, dasheen root.

Green fig, plantains, and breadfruit are also considered ground provision. They are technically not tubular vegetables but they are commonly eaten and associated with ground provisions.

Uses of ground provision

As I mentioned before, normally we just boil and slice whatever provision is going to be eaten. I love eating them this way with stew saltfish but it can be paired with any other types of stew meats.

I can also just be roasted whole in the oven. Just like we do Irish potatoes. Simply baked ground provision.

We also use them in fancier ways ranging from appetizers to desserts and even drinks.

Pone (sometimes called cassava cake) is a popular dessert that uses some type of ground provision. The combinations for this is endless but cassava is popularly used. My recipe for pone is a mix of cassava, sweet potato, and pumpkin.

Then there is "oil down" which is a pot dish of ground provision cooked down in coconut milk.

But then sometimes you may just want to have your ground provision a little fancy and this is where my ground provision pie comes in.

My version of this pie calls for my two favorites. Cassava, also known as yucca, and sweet potato. This casserole is baked to a golden brown with a layer of cheese and a tomato sauce to give it a nice little tartness.

It is important to make sure that the cassava is a nice smooth consistency. Make sure to remove the "stem" after boiling and before mashing. Mashing yucca takes a little power.

Is the consistency too stiff to mix? You may need to add more butter and milk to get a smooth enough texture so that it can spread. Just add bits more butter/milk to get it to be smooth.


Then in a well greased dish, layer the cassava out and press down, trying to make an even a layer as possible.


Then do the same with the sweet potato. And then the tomato sauce. I probably used about 3/4 of the tomato sauce I made.


Layer with cheese and throw it in the oven. When that cheese is at the golden stage, take it out


This was delicious hot out the oven, well, warm. But it also was just as good the day after.


But that layering is gorgeous no?

What I love about this pie the flavors are not very strong but it's so tasty. The tomato spread with the sweet potato and yucca gives a nice tanginess to the provisions.

If you want to add some more flavor, after the yucca, put half of the tomato spread then layer the sweet potato and the rest of the tomato paste. Then finish with your cheese

Boom!! Deliciousness!!

What can you pair this with:

Do you eat ground provision? 

Which ones are your favorites?












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