- Flavor base
- Tomato, onion and hot pepper blended smooth
- Staple starches
- Rice, cassava, yam, plantain, maize, teff
- Cooking fats
- Palm oil, peanut oil, spiced butter
The shape of a meal
Across much of the region, a meal is a soup or stew paired with a starch. In West and Central Africa that starch is often fufu or another pounded or stirred dough of cassava, yam, plantain or maize. In East Africa, ugali, a stiff maize porridge, plays a similar role. In Ethiopia and Eritrea, injera, a spongy fermented flatbread, is both plate and utensil. Eating with the right hand from a shared dish is common in many places.
Spices to know
Berbere, an Ethiopian and Eritrean blend of chile with warm spices, colors many stews. Ethiopian cooks also use a spiced clarified butter called niter kibbeh. In West Africa, hot peppers such as Scotch bonnet, ginger, garlic and local seasonings lead, and suya, grilled meat skewers popular in Nigeria, is coated in a spicy peanut mix. In Southern Africa, the Cape Malay community brought cinnamon, cloves and turmeric into dishes such as bobotie.
Signature dishes
| Dish | Where | What it is, in general terms |
|---|---|---|
| Jollof rice | West Africa | Rice cooked in a blended sauce of tomato, pepper and onion. Nigerian, Ghanaian and Senegalese cooks have a long, friendly rivalry over it. |
| Thieboudienne | Senegal | Fish and broken rice cooked with vegetables in a tomato sauce. It is often named as an ancestor of jollof. |
| Egusi soup | West Africa | A thick soup made with ground melon seeds, leafy greens and meat or fish, eaten with a pounded starch. |
| Fufu | West and Central Africa | A soft, stretchy dough of pounded or cooked cassava, yam or plantain, pinched off by hand to scoop soup. |
| Injera with wat | Ethiopia and Eritrea | Spongy fermented flatbread, traditionally made from teff, under stews spiced with berbere and spiced butter. |
| Maafe | Senegal and Mali | A stew thickened with ground peanuts, with tomato, meat and vegetables. |
| Bobotie | South Africa | Spiced minced meat with dried fruit, baked under an egg topping. A Cape Malay dish. |
Across the region
West African cooking is known for tomato and pepper bases, palm oil, peanuts, leafy greens and rice dishes. Ethiopian and Eritrean cooking has a large range of vegetarian dishes, partly because of fasting days in the Orthodox Christian calendar. East African cooking along the Swahili coast uses coconut, rice and spices from centuries of Indian Ocean trade, as in pilau, spiced rice. Southern African cooking includes barbecue, called braai in South Africa, maize porridge and dishes shaped by Dutch, Malay and Indian communities.
Ingredients from the Americas, such as cassava, peanuts, maize and chiles, became staples here over the last few centuries. Many dishes also traveled the other way with enslaved Africans, shaping cooking in the Caribbean, Brazil and the US South.
Cooking these dishes at home
- Blend tomato, red pepper, onion and hot chile, then fry the blend in oil until it darkens and the oil rises to the top. This step is the base of jollof and many stews.
- For peanut stews, use smooth, unsweetened peanut butter or ground roasted peanuts.
- Look for teff flour, palm oil, egusi seeds and fufu flour at African grocers or online.
- Making injera at home takes a few days of fermenting the batter. Start with a tested recipe and expect a practice round or two.
Peanuts are central to many dishes here and are a serious allergen for some people. Check ingredients when cooking for others and follow their doctor's advice.
Five things to buy first
- Natural peanut butter
- Canned tomatoes and tomato paste
- Scotch bonnet or another hot chile
- Berbere or a West African pepper blend
- Long-grain rice
More on storing and using these on the spices and pantry page.
Africa questions
Who makes the best jollof?
That depends on who you ask, and the friendly argument between Nigerian, Ghanaian and Senegalese cooks is part of the dish's fun. Each country, and each family, makes it in its own style.
What is teff?
Teff is a tiny grain grown mainly in Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is used to make injera and is naturally free of gluten, though some injera recipes mix in wheat or barley flour.