African salad, from the cuisine of Africa is made in a variety of forms and flavors, and includes ingredients like fresh local vegetables, exotic fruits, seafood, meat and seasonings. The salads are served as appetizers or desserts and form a very nutritious addition to any meal.
Ingredients Used for Preparing African Salad
Vegetables and Fruits: Ingredients used to make the salad include fresh vegetables like potatoes, pumpkin, tomatoes, cabbage and green beans. Corn (mealies) often forms an ingredient of many such salads. Exotic African fruits like grapes, apricots, mangoes, peaches, quince, melons and pomegranates are used to make fruit salads that may be topped with fresh cream. One such African salad recipe suggests stuffing grilled marinated meat in apricot.
Seafood: Seafood often forms a part of African salad. There are salads that are made of seafood on a platter of lettuce, or ones that contain lobster stuffing in avocado. Other seafood salads are crayfish salad and rock lobster tail salad.
Popular African Salad Recipes
• Cabbage and Pineapple Salad: The salad is eaten in West Africa, and is made of cabbage and pineapples as the main ingredients and tomatoes, salad herbs, green peppers, salt and pepper as seasonings. The salad dressing is made of cream, milk and yoghurt.
• Cucumber Zucchini Salad: Popular in the Ivory coast region, this salad is essentially made of zucchini and cucumbers, and contains seasonings of vinegar, salt, sugar, black and red peppers.
• Cucumber Boat with Flaked Fish Stuffing: This African salad recipe suggests laying a bed of lettuce on which a cucumber boat is placed, and this cucumber shell is filled with a fish stuffing made with blended fish, sour cream, salt, sugar and lemon juice. It is decorated with a piece of cheese for the sail of the boat.
• Avocado with Seafood Stuffing: Popular in South Africa, this salad consists of a bed of lettuce on which hollowed avocados are placed, and filled with marinated seafood mixed with dressing.
Serving African Salad
African salads are served as appetizers before the main meal. Some African salads, especially fruit salads are also served as a dessert.
Nutritive Value of African Salads
African salads are a rich source of various essential nutrients contained in fresh vegetables and fruits. The seafood salads supply the body with omega 3 oils and are good for boosting immunity as well as for patients of heart disease and arthritis. Seasonings used for African salad recipes are known to stimulate digestion.