Ghanaian cuisine is mainly built around starchy foods, paired with sauce or soup.

Characteristic Products

Food of plant origin

The staples of Ghanaian cuisine are cassava, plantain, millet, sorghum, yam, taro, sweet potato, maize and beans. With the advent of globalization, crops such as rice and wheat are increasingly found in Ghanaian cuisine.

Meat and fish

Beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, tripe, snails and fried fish are common ingredients in Ghanaian soups and stews. Often different types of meat or meat and fish are mixed in one dish.

Also eaten in Ghana are crabs, shrimp, litorina, octopus, snails, maggots, duck, offal, pork feet and oysters.

Meat, mushrooms and seafood can be smoked, salted or dried to improve flavor and preservation. Salted fish is widely used to add flavor to fish dishes.

Dairy

Spices

Spices such as thyme, garlic, onion, ginger, pepper, curry, basil, nutmeg, sumbala, tetrapleura tetraptera (prekese) and bay leaf are used to achieve the exotic and spicy flavors that characterize Ghanaian cuisine.

Palm oil, coconut oil, shea butter, palm kernel oil and groundnut oil are important ingredients in Ghanaian cuisine, used for cooking or frying. In some traditional dishes they cannot be replaced with anything. Coconut oil, palm kernel oil and shea butter have recently fallen out of favor in Ghanaian cuisine due to the emergence of refined oils and negative Ghanaian media advertising targeting these oils. Currently, they are mainly used in a few traditional homes, for making soap and by street food vendors as a cheaper substitute for refined vegetable oils.

Mako is a spicy condiment made from raw red and green chilies, onions and tomatoes.

Traditional dishes

Bread

Bread is an important feature of the Ghanaian breakfast. Typically, bread in Ghana is known for its good quality and is baked with wheat flour, sometimes with cassava flour added to improve the texture. There are four main types of bread in Ghana. These include tea bread (similar to a baguette), sweet sugar bread, brown whole grain bread, and butter bread.

Rye bread, oat bread and malt bread are also quite common.

Soups

Soups and stews in Ghanaian cuisine are multi-component and characterized by the extensive use of exotic ingredients. Typically soups and stews are prepared with ingredients such as palm nuts, peanuts, coconut leaves, spinach, wild mushroom, okra, eggplant and tomatoes. Soups are served as the main course.

Traditional Ghanaian soups include groundnut soup, light tomato soup, taro leaf soup, palm nut soup and okra soup.

Main courses

Most Ghanaian side dishes are served with meat stew, soup or mako sauce.

Akple is a Ghanaian dish traditional to the Ewe tribe living in the Volta region. Akple appears to be whitish-gray in color and is a ball of corn and cassava flour with water and salt. Akple may vary in size depending on who it is served to. Traditionally, akple is eaten with hands.

Mmore - similar to akple, but balls are prepared from fermented doughonly from corn flour, without adding cassava flour. prepare fermented corn dough without cassava. Common among the Akan people.

Kenkey (Komi/Dokonu) is fermented corn dough wrapped in corn molds. A traditional dish of the Ga people, it is also called Ga kenkey. There is also a variety called Fanti Kenkey, which is wrapped in plantain leaves. This species is considered traditional for the Fanti people. Both varieties of kenki are boiled for a long time into homogeneous hard balls. They are usually served with pepper sauce and fried fish or soup, stew

Tuo Zaafi is a popular dish made from millet, sorghum or corn in Ghanaian cuisine. It is eaten mainly with green vegetable soup made from bitter leaves, or sometimes from fresh crushed cassava leaves.

Fonfom is a corn dish popular in southwestern Ghana.

Waakye is a rice dish with purple-brown beans. This color is achieved by adding the leaves of a native plant known as sorghum bicolor. This side dish is very similar to West Indian rice and peas.

Omo Tuo are sticky balls of pureed rice, usually eaten with Ghanaian soup.

Jollof rice is rice cooked in a stew of broth, tomatoes, spices and meat. This dish originated from the Jolof traders of Senegal who settled in Zongo before the colonial period. It was then adapted to local Ghanaian tastes and is now commonly eaten with goat, lamb, chicken or beef.

Angwa Moo is another name for butter rice. This is traditional Ghanaian rice that is first fried in a lot of oil with onions and then... after the onion has browned,add water. It can also be prepared with vegetables or minced meat. It is mainly served with ground pepper and canned sardines or fried eggs.

Ngwo Moo (palm rice) is an alternative to butter rice with the difference that it is cooked with palm oil instead of vegetable oil.

Konkonte / Abete - a dish made from dried and ground cassava. Usually served with peanut soup.

Fufuo is a traditional Ghanaian side dish of crushed cassava with plantains or crushed yams with plantains. This side dish always goes in addition to one of the many varieties of Ghanaian soups.

Garri - cassava powder. In Ghana, gari is judged by taste and grain size. Sweeter varieties with smaller grains are valued. Gari is often served with red ed.

Plakali is a side dish made from cassava. Plakali is a staple food among the Ahanta and Nzema peoples of the western regions of Ghana. It is a dough made from cassava flour, boiled in hot water. Plakals are eaten with palm nut or peanut soup.

Red Red is a popular Ghanaian bean and fish stew served with fried plantains and gari. Red red gets its name from the palm oil that turns the stewed beans a bright orange color.

Tubaani is a boiled bean pie.

Ampesie - boiled sweet potato. It is prepared with plantains, taro, potatoes, yams or cassava. This side dish is traditionally eaten with a fish stew containing tomatoes, oil and spices.

Yam fufuo is a soft dough made from yams that is traditionally eaten with any type of Ghanaian soup.

Mpotompoto is a yam casserole. Pieces of yam are cooked in plenty of water with the addition of pepper, onion, tomatoes, salt and spices.

Kebabs are also popular in Ghana and are made from beef, goat, pork, soy flour, sausage and guinea fowl.

Salads and snacks

Kuze ( Koose are deep-fried balls of shelled beans. Sold as street food in Ghana. The twin brother of acarajé, the only difference is that acarajé is made from unhusked beans.

Wagashi is a fried farmer's cheese.

Dessert

Kelewele - Ripe plantains, diced and coated in spices, sometimes served with peanuts.

Nkate cake is a peanut pie.

Tatale - fritters made from ripe plantains.

Also a popular modern dessert is a mixture of gari with sugar, peanuts and milk.

Beverages

In northern Ghana, common soft drinks are bisaab, toose and lamujee, a spicy sweetened drink.

Common drinks in urban areas of Ghana include fruit juices, cocoa, fresh coconut water, yogurt, carbonated drinks, malt drinks and soy milk.

Alcohol

Asaana is a fermented corn drink common in southern Ghana.

Palm wine is a wine made from the palm tree and is made primarily inalong Lake Volta and in southern Ghana. Since it ferments quickly, it is then used to distill Akpeteshi.

Akpeteshie is a local gin. It is distilled not only from fermented palm wine, but also from molasses.

Pitoo is a local beer made from fermented millet.

In addition, Ghanaian distilleries produce alcoholic beverages from cocoa, malt, sugar cane, local medicinal herbs and tree bark. These include bitters, liqueurs, dry gins, beers and aperitifs.

Serving and etiquette

Street food is very popular in both rural and urban areas of Ghana. Most Ghanaian families eat at least three times a week from street food outlets. There you can buy all kinds of familiar food, including traditional dishes such as kenkey, red ed and waache.

The old joke about the messenger from Pisa and something from Ghana is not the most delicious story about this African country. Let's think: what can you get from Ghana that is edible, exotic, surprising and pleasing to the taste buds? The answer is clear - fufu! This is the name of the most popular national dish in Ghana. Fufu in restaurants is always much worse than in cheap eateries. No one has yet been able to find out the etymology of the word “fufu”, since the Ghanaians themselves do not know this.

Perhaps this is something like our “woo-hoo!”, because this food is incredibly spicy, and after each spoon you involuntarily have to swallow air noisily to extinguish the fire in your mouth. Although, strictly speaking, only aesthetes or inexperienced foreigners eat fufu with spoons and forks. It is more correct and convenient to take fufu with your hands, occasionally resorting to a knife. Fufu is prepared in different ways, but most often it is a viscous football-sized ball rolled from cassava, yam and plantain flour.

Having famously used three incomprehensible words in one phrase, I am ready to quickly explain them. Cassava is a local plant and flour is made from its roots. Yam is a plant with edible tubers, very similar in taste to potatoes, but sweeter. Plantains resemble bananas, but are longer, starchier and have a thicker skin; they are eaten only after cooking. All three components of fufu contain a lot of starch. The notorious ball is filled with broth with pieces of goat or chicken, richly flavored with hot red pepper pods and a lot of spices. All this is served in a plate that looks more like a basin, and certainly with beer... But let’s digress for a moment while you, taken to fufu, order tickets to Ghana: here’s a recipe for a simple soup there.

Ghanaian soup

One can of salmon, 500 g of mackerel, that is, mackerel, 2 onions, 1/2 liter of water, 1/2 liter of tomato juice or 500 g of sautéed tomatoes, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. pepper, 2 slices of lemon, 1 bay leaf.

Clean the fish, gut it, remove the head and tail and boil over low heat for 7-8 minutes, adding finely chopped onion, bay leaf and lemon. Then add tomato juice and salmon, season with salt and pepper and boil again.

Let's get back to the fufu. This dish is so filling that many Ghanaians eat it once a day, usually at noon. It is relatively cheap and affordable even for the poor. The development of modern technology and changing lifestyles in Ghana mean that in the 21st century, fewer and fewer people are forced to engage in one of the most tedious jobs on Earth - cooking fufu. Fufu has a wonderful taste - especially if you try it with specially prepared palm nut soup, fish and selected vegetables. But the cooking process usually takes hours.

Meanwhile, various varieties of instant fufu have recently become widespread. Fast food is sold in powdered bags, which is dissolved in water and heated on the stove, stirring, in just five minutes. It takes even less time to prepare if you have a microwave oven at hand.

You can hear a commercial on a local radio station in which a mother asks her son to start making traditional fufu. The guy, knowing what tedious work he has ahead of him, runs away from home. And advertisers emphasize: the solution to this woman’s problem is instant fufu.

Recently, many Africans are choosing to live abroad, so national prepared foods are becoming more popular outside of Ghana. In this country, local food products are increasingly produced for export.

As for the quality of African fast foods, not everyone is satisfied with it yet.

Here is what one of the local residents said about this: “Not a single accountant would think of saying that preparing a financial report is a complex process and should be abandoned. This approach is also unacceptable for the production of fufu. All its components must be thoroughly ground - as required by the traditional recipe for preparing the dish.”

Strictly speaking, there is a clear relationship between Ghanaian fufu and the famous Nigerian pepper soup. It is made from chicken, goat or fish. The broth takes on a grayish color due to the abundance of pepper and other hot spices. Rarely does a white visitor, having grabbed the first bowl of this soup, not begin to gasp for air, like a fish snatched from the water. But if you have the courage to eat a second bowl, you will become a pepper soup fan for life. Five or six spoons, and you're covered in perspiration. But the nasopharynx is cleared, there is a clear fire in the stomach, and blissful peace in the body. The former Minister of Health of Nigeria, Olikoye Ransom-Kuti, once seriously remarked: “As long as we eat pepper soup in Nigeria, which instantly kills any harmful bacteria and microbes in the gastrointestinal tract, we have nothing to fear from epidemics.”

I also have a recipe for fufu, already slightly adapted to our reality, I dug it up on the Internet. It doesn't have cassava or yam, but it does have cassava - like horseradish is not sweeter than radish. Although now you can find the devil in our gigamarkets, that means it’s worth trying to snag cassava plantains. As a last resort, replace the plantains with regular bananas, and the cassava with corn flour, the main thing is not to tell the guests about it.

Fufu with beef in shakalaka sauce

300 g cassava root, 300 g plantains, 500 g beef, salt to taste, 1 onion (finely chopped), 2 tomatoes (finely chopped), 1/2 l broth, 200 g smoked fish (chopped), 2 tbsp. l. Shakalaka sauce, 1 chili pepper, 150 ml coconut milk.

For the fufu: Peel, chop and core the cassava root. Place in cold water for 3-4 days, changing the water twice a day. Boil the soaked root for 15–20 minutes (until it boils like potatoes). 5 minutes before readiness, add chopped plantains. Drain and mash with a fork. Salt to taste and add desired spices. Cool and form into balls of your desired size with wet hands. (You should eat fufu with your hands, pinching off a piece at a time.) Then chop the beef (how large depends on your desire) and put it in a saucepan along with onions, tomatoes, salt (to taste) and broth. Bring to a boil and cook for approximately 30-45 minutes. Add smoked fish, crushed chili, coconut milk and shakalaka sauce. Let it simmer over low heat for another 15 minutes. Pour this over the fufu and serve in a porcelain bowl with a liter mug of beer.

Note. Shakalaka (when I first heard it, without context, I thought it was a way of life.) is, rather, not a sauce, but vegetable caviar. Preparing it according to the full list of ingredients is, of course, a chore. Buy - it's not available everywhere. In short, here is a shortened version of the Wikipedia reference, and then deal with the shakalaka yourself. Bon appetit!

Shakalaka is a spicy African vegetable salad popular in South Africa and also in Swaziland. The composition includes tomatoes and onions, carrots, baked beans, peas, cabbage cut into strips and spices: pepper (both black and red chili), salt, garlic, and also (depending on the recipe) curry, ginger and coriander . Traditionally eaten with bread or corn porridge, it is also served as a side dish for sausage, chicken, fried lamb and pork. To compensate for its fiery taste, it is sometimes served with sour cottage cheese. Shakalaka is eaten both cold and hot. In modern Western cuisine, shakalaka is used as a sauce for potato chips or as a barbecue sauce.

Ghanaian cuisine is rich in local national cuisine. Almost every ethnic tribe has its own delicious "signature" dish. However, a lot has changed over the years due to increasing urbanization. Nowadays, many similar dishes are prepared in urban areas and eaten by people from other ethnic communities.

Features of the national cuisine of Ghana

Ghanaians have a fairly simple, but very flavorful cuisine. Most dishes consist of large pieces of stewed meat or fish, usually served with staples such as rice or yams. Onions and chili peppers, along with tomatoes, palm nuts and broth, form the basis for most stews. Meat is not often found on the average Ghanaian's table and is usually replaced by cheaper fish.

The specific foods that make up the cuisine vary depending on which region we are talking about. In the north, the most commonly eaten foods are millet, yams, and corn, while in the south and west, plantain (similar to bananas), cassava, and cocoyam (root vegetables). People of the dry southeastern region eat mainly corn and cassava. Rice is the staple food throughout the country. Jollof is a spicy dish of rice, tomato sauce and meat that is loved by the majority of the Ghanaian population. Pito, a fermented drink made from sorghum, is popular in the north, while those living in the south prefer palm wine.

Although each ethnic group has its own style of cooking, most Ghanaians tend to cook intuitively, determining which ingredients to add during the cooking process. Milk, cheese and other dairy products are rare in the Ghanaian diet and are usually only found in large supermarkets. On the other hand, soy milk can be found in any store.

Top 10 Popular Dishes in Ghanaian Cuisine

When traveling around this country, it is impossible not to try traditional cuisine. Get to know the main ones:

Soups and stews

Most Ghanaian cuisine is usually served with stew or soup. The most popular are peanut soup, palmnut soup or light soup. Typically, rice is served with soup or stew, kenque is eaten with fried fish and hot peppers, and banku is eaten with stew or soup, sometimes with tilapia (freshwater fish). Fufu, akle and conconte are served with the puree soup.

“Meat” in Ghanaian cuisine means any protein - snails, crabs, beef or fish, as well as meat from wild animals. Although Ghana has passed a law to protect endangered species, it is difficult to convince tribes who have hunted for their food for centuries to stop doing so. Despite the bans, in the markets you can find meat from antelopes, squirrels, local hares, as well as giant cane rats (grasscutters), the hunting of which is, of course, not prohibited. Rat dish is considered a delicacy in Ghana.

The basis of local cuisine is thick soups, which are boiled in meat broth with abundant addition of starch, vegetables, herbs and spices. Moreover, only here, in Ghana, can you see such exotic dishes as pepe peanut soup, palm nut soup or nkontomire - a soup made from yam leaves, with bananas and ampesi sauce, which are considered the hallmarks of local cuisine. Moreover, there are many variants of these soups - you can find peanut soup with beef, lamb, fish and even crabs, but most often chicken broth is used as the basis. Another ubiquitous element of local cuisine is "fufu" - a kind of puree made from yam, banana or cassava, which is sometimes rolled into balls and eaten with soups or other dishes, and sometimes flavored with meat or fish, turning into a kind of goulash. The Ashanti even say “if you ate without fufu, you didn’t eat at all.” Also characteristic of local cooking is the widespread use of bread and fried bananas or cassava.

Ghanaian cuisine recipes. Dishes for the holidays. National New Year's recipes.

Main dishes:

• Yolof - like paella with meat and rice
• Rice with chicken
• Gari photo - crab or shrimp meat in dough
• Kenki and fante dorkunu - fish fried in dough or banana leaves in pepper sauce
• Fante-fante fish fried in oil
• Balls with too zafari sauce
• Cassava paste kokonte
• Omo-tuo rice puree
• Fried Kuse Bean Balls
• Fula - puree of milk, ginger and sugar

Popular local meat dishes include "yolof" - a paella-like dish with meat and rice, "chofi" - fried turkey with meat, all kinds of kebabs and couscous, arcanti game with various side dishes, fried green-green snails, dozens of types of grilled poultry or chicken salads, as well as all kinds of curries with rice and meat.

The Gulf of Guinea serves as the main source of protein for the local population, so you should not be surprised at the abundance of fish and seafood in the local cuisine. You can often find on the menu such dishes as “gari-photo” - a kind of salad made from eggs, onions, tomatoes, crab or shrimp meat in dough, regular meat and potatoes, “kenki” - pepper-fried fish in dough or banana leaves sauce, "fante-dorkunu" - one of the "kenki" variants, "forove" fish stewed with tomatoes, small "fante-fante" fish stewed in palm oil, mackerel and salmon soup with tomato juice, roasted black beans, fried onions, tomatoes and dried aduafrol fish, as well as all kinds of seafood, grilled over coals or served boiled with many simple vegetable dishes.

Typically, these simple dishes include boiled rice, tuo-zafari sauce balls (often called simply "ti-zet" and thrown into peanut soup), cassava paste "kokonteh", mashed rice "omo-tuo" (often also rolled into balls), stewed beans "yoko-gari", fried banana "tatale", stewed beans "tubaani" or fried bean balls "kuse". All this is accompanied by various sauces such as curry, "agushi" (sauce made from vegetable oil, tomatoes and onions), "shito" (hot pepper sauce) or various variations on the theme of ketchup.

During February, which is Global Voices Food Month, we couldn't help but write about ten amazing dishes from Africa. Be sure to add them to your recipe collection!

Kamba (Prawns/shrimp) is loved in the coastal region . Shrimps taste better if cooked for just a few minutes on high heat. In the past I preferred fried shrimp only, but shrimp cooked with coconut milk is something that I would advise everyone to try. Believe me; you may never want fried shrimp ever again if you try this recipe. This recipe is exotic.

Prawns are very popular in the coastal region (East Africa). They turn out very tasty if you cook them over high heat for a few minutes. I used to exclusively prefer fried shrimp, but shrimp in coconut milk is something I would encourage everyone to try. Trust me, you will never want to eat fried shrimp again if you try this dish. This recipe is very unusual.

Ingredients:

500 g shrimp (preferably king)
0.5 cups chopped onion
1 tbsp finely chopped garlic
1 tbsp ginger
0.5 tsp black pepper
0.5 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp tomato paste (the more, the thicker the sauce)
1 cup chopped peeled tomatoes
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 bowl mixed bell peppers (red, yellow, green)
0.75 cups real coconut milk (tui Zito)
0.5 tbsp salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Preparation

Marinate the shrimp with salt and pepper, if desired (optional), and refrigerate for an hour.
Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the onion and fry over medium heat until light brown. Add the garlic and ginger and continue cooking until the garlic turns brown.
Add black pepper and turmeric/saffron, stir for half a minute, then add tomato paste and stir for a minute.

Add the bell peppers and cook for about a minute, then add the tomatoes. Increase heat and cook until tomatoes soften.
Then add coconut milk. Stir until the milk boils. Add the shrimp, salt and cilantro, cover and let simmer for 5 minutes until the shrimp are cooked through. If there is not enough sauce, add coconut milk or water.

Serve hot.

Efo Riro is a Nigerian vegetable soup. Photo by Dobby Signature, used with permission.

Efo riro” is a Yoruba word which simply means “Vegetable soup” and it’s enjoyed by many. This is because it’s really versatile and could be eaten with meals such as Rice, Yam and any type of Swallow. When I got to the market to buy the ingredients for cooking this meal, I actually got so confused when it came to choosing which Leaf to use for the soup.

“Efo Riro” is a Yoruba word that simply means “vegetable soup” and it is loved by so many people. That's because this soup is so versatile that you can eat it with rice, sweet potatoes, or basically anything. When I came to the market to buy ingredients for this dish, I thought for a long time about what kind of greens to buy for it.

Senegalese national dish sibu yen. Photo posted by Wikipedia user KVDP.

There are about as many variations for spelling ceebu jenn (thieboudienne, thiep bu dinenne, ceebujenn...) as there are to making it. This rice (ceeb) and fish (jenn) recipe is the national dish of Senegal and can also be made with beef (ceebu yapp). If the dish looks familiar, it’s because it’s a descendent of paella.

There are many variants of pronunciation of this name (sibudien, sip bu dinen, sibuien...), as well as variations in the preparation of this dish. This rice (sib) and fish (yen) recipe is the national dish of Senegal and can also be prepared with beef (sibu yapp). If the dish looks familiar, it may be because sibu yen comes from paella.

Matapa is a typical Mozambican dish prepared with young cassava leaves, garlic, crab meat or shrimp. In most cases, cashew nuts are added to matapa. This dish can be eaten with bread, rice or just on its own.

Chef Guru Mozambique Cuisine gives simple instructions for you on how to cook matapa:

Are you ready to eat matapa? Photo by Brandi Phiri. Used with permission.

1 kg of shrimps
– 750 gr of peanuts
– 1 kg of cabbage leaf or cassava leaf
– 1 coconut
– 2 L of water
– salt to taste

Ingredients:
1kg shrimp
750 g peanuts
1 kg cabbage or cassava leaves
1 coconut
2l water
salt to taste

Doro wet (above) is traditionally eaten with injera, a lacy flat bread made with a millet-like grain:

5 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon yeast
warm enough water to make a thin batter

Begin by combining the flour, baking powder and yeast in a large bowl. Add enough water to make a batter the consistency of thin pancake batter. Cover the bowl and set it aside.

Ingredients
5 tbsp flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp yeast

Start by mixing the flour, baking powder and yeast in a large bowl. Add enough warm water to achieve pancake batter consistency. Cover the bowl and set it aside.

You will find complete cooking instructions [eng].

Ethiopian/Eritrean injera (flat bread) eaten with dishes such as doro vet. Photo published by Wikipedia user Rama (CC BY-SA 2.0 FR).

Food blogger Immaculate writes about the Cameroonian dish ndole:

At the top of my favorite Cameroonian food is Ndole, which is always present at parties, and when cooked properly flies off the table. It is an absolutely irresistible combination of peanuts, bitter leaves (substitute spinach), meat (stock fish, shrimp,) and oil. If I could eat this every day I would, It is rich, high in calories and loved by many. It tastes like a stew spinach dip with all the spices and meat.

My favorite Cameroonian dish is ndole, which no party is complete without, and if prepared properly, it will be snapped up in no time. This is an extremely tempting combination of peanuts, spinach, meat (cod, shrimp), dried shrimp and oil. If I could eat this dish every day, I would. This is a very filling dish and many people like it. It tastes like sautéed spinach with all the spices and meat.

Follow Immaculate's instructions to make your own ndole.

There are many more delicious African dishes than those listed above, so be sure to explore the blogs in this article to find more!