Africa: Cuisine and Recipes

The cooking of Africa has roots reaching back thousands of years. This huge continent is the origin of many unique grains and vegetables, many found nowhere else in the world. In recent centuries, African cuisine has been influenced by Arab traders, European colonizers and Asian immigrants.

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Most African meals center around a starchy gruel — fufu, ugali or nshima — that is served a vegetable stew or a soup. Grilled meats and smoked fish are also popular. Many dishes get fiery heat from hot chile peppers.

Cuisines of Africa

Ethiopia: Cuisine and Recipes

The cuisine of Ethiopia is one of the world's best kept secrets. Ethiopian food is a spicy mix of vegetable and lentil stews and slow-simmered meats. Straddling the Rift Valley of East Africa, Ethiopia has been called the "Land of Bread and Honey." Read more »

Ivory Coast, Côte d'Ivoire: Cuisine and Recipes

The food of the Ivory Coast, or Côte d'Ivoire, has slow-simmered stews and a variety of starches and grains. Chicken and fish are popular. Tomatoes, eggplant and onions are important vegetables. Cassava root, plantains, and rice form the bulk of starchy calories. Read more »

Kenya: Cuisine and Recipes

Country | Kenya | Singing Masai Women Image

Everyone has a picture of Kenya. Broad savannas teeming with wildlife. Masai tending their cattle. Ancient landscapes punctuated by thorny acacia. But not many know the food of this great East African nation. From Mombasa on the east coast to Lake Victoria in the west, Kenya has a nourishing and hearty cuisine just waiting to be discovered. Read more »

Mali: Cuisine and Recipes

Malinese cuisine consists mainly of millet, corn, or rice porridges served with a variety of "sauces." These sauces can be made with peanuts, okra, baobab leaves or sweet potato leaves. Meats and vegetables are added to the sauces, which are then served over porridge, couscous or rice. Read more »

Nigeria: Cuisine and Recipes

Nigeria, a large country in West Africa, is the continent's most populous nation and one of its most diverse. Nigerian food is typically West African, but individual ethnic groups within the country give Nigerian cuisine a wonderful variety of dishes and flavors. Read more »

Senegal: Cuisine and Recipes

Country | Senegal | Bathing Children Image

Senegalese cuisine is made up of an amalgam of influences, from local Wolof culinary traditions to the cuisine of Morocco and cooking of former French colonizers. Many dishes that originated in Senegal have become mainstays throughout West Africa. Read more »

South Africa: Recipes and Cuisine

The cooking of South Africa, often called "rainbow cuisine," is a mixture of indigenous African dishes, the cooking of Dutch and English settlers and the well spiced foods of Malays, Indians and Indonesians who were brought to South Africa as slaves and servants in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Read more »