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. 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: 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. A popular dish is mafé, or sauce d'arachide, which is meat in peanut sauce. Side dishes include fried or mashed plantains and attieke, grated and cooked cassava. Small, local restaurants called maquis serve dishes like kedjenou, chicken stewed with tomatoes and vegetables. Read more »
Kenya: Cuisine and Recipes
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: Recipes and Cuisine
Nigeria is a large country located in West Africa. It is also the continent's most populous and one of its most diverse. Nigerian food is typical of Western Africa, but individual dishes vary by ethnic group. Popular dishes are jollof rice, dodo (fried plantains), fufu, or iyan (mashed yams), and moin moin (a bean pudding). Yams, cassava, rice and sorghum are common starches, while tomatoes, peppers, onions, peanuts and beans are important vegetables. Rich red palm oil flavors many dishes. Zobo, a drink from hibiscus blooms, quenches many a thirst. Read more »
Senegal: Recipes and Cuisine
Senegalese cuisine is an amalgam of influences, from local Wolof traditions to the cuisine of Morocco and that of former French colonizers. Some of the more common dishes in Senegal are: ceebu jen, a tomatoey fish stew over rice; yassa, grilled chicken marinated with onions and lemon juice; and mafé, a meat and peanut stew. Rice, couscous and French bread are common starches. Fish is eaten along the long coast. Tomatoes, black-eyed peas, onions and peanuts are used in numerous dishes and thious, or stews. Tropical fruit and rich desserts end meals. Read more »
South Africa: Recipes and Cuisine
Home to Rainbow Cuisine. Read more »
