West Africa's famous dishes - by food author Howard Hillman

West Africa's
most famous specialties
and ingredients

Best known
West African foods

The 3 most
famous specialties

Similar dishes bear different names in different West African locales. I use below the most widely popular name for a dish.

Groundnut (peanut) stew
This is easily West Africa's most celebrated culinary preparation. I found it nearly everywhere in that part of Africa. Almost any meat (or none at all) can go into this one-pot dish as long as the cook generously adds peanuts, tomatoes, onions and chilies.

Jollof Rice
It's a well-seasoned meat-and-rice preparation enriched with tomatoes and onions. The meat is usually chicken, but can be red meat or seafood. Jollof Rice vaguely resembles a Spanish paella or Cajun jambalaya.

FuFu (also spelled Foo Foo)
This popular food is yam, plantain, cassava, or other starch vegetable that has been cooked and pounded into a pasty mass. Typically, the diner rolls some of it into a ball, dips it in the stew or sauce, then pops it in his mouth. It's swallowed (not chewed).

Popular
cooking ingredients

Chilies

As in most hot-and-humid lands, the chili is immensely loved in West Africa. It causes you to sweat, which air-conditions your skin. The chili's other benefits include helping preserve food and adding needed gustatory excitement to relatively bland tropical staples like root vegetables. (See my "New Kitchen Science" book for details).

Palm nut oil

This is the most prevalent cooking oil. It lends its distinct flavor and a slight reddish pigment to the food.

Grains of paradise

This indigenous spice tastes and looks somewhat like a peppercorn, but has cardamom and coriander seed flavor notes.

Vegetables

They play a vital and respected role in the West African diet. Even in small village markets, vegetables tend to be much fresher and better conditioned (therefore more nutritious) than those sitting in American supermarket bins.

My West African
cuisine home page