Ghanaian

 

Ghanaian food refers to food of Ghana, which is quite similar to African foods, and is prepared from grains, vegetables, tubers, fish, snails, various kinds of sea foods and meat. Ghanaian food traditionally includes a starchy dish (rice, banku, tuozafi, fufu, gigi, akplidzii, etew, yekeyeke, ato, etc) and soup or sauce enriched with meat, mushrooms, fish or snails.

 

Cultural and Regional Influence on Ghanaian Cuisine

Ghanaian food is traditionally influenced by its regional variations and cultural differences. Ghana is a nation with more than 21 million people and 79 languages, thus resulting in distinct dishes from one ethnic group to the other and from one part of the state to the other viz east Ghana to west Ghana and north Ghana to south Ghana. The religious inclination also has an impact on the Ghanaian food, thus resulting in regional variations in terms of popular foods.

 

Popular Foods in Ghanaian Cuisine

Here are a few examples of popular types of Ghanaian food.

 

  • KENKEY– this dish is made up of corn dough or maize.

 

  • WAAKYE–this is a mix of beans and rice, boiled together.

 

  • BEANS and RIPE PLANTAIN– this is a kind of Ghanaian food where beans are cooked in tomato sauce, onions and spices and consumed with fried and ripe plantain

 

  • GARI– this is a dish which looks like little crystals of sugar and is prepared of cassava.

 

  • BANKU– this dish is quite similar to kenkey, which is prepared with corn dough or maize but is smoother than kenkey.

 

  • RICE BALLS– boiled rice is used to prepare rice balls.

 

  • FUFU – this popular Ghanaian food is prepared by mounding a mix of cassava and plantain.

 

  • COCOYAM/YAM PUDDING– this dish is prepared of chopped cocoyam/yam, which is cooked in onion, tomato sauce and various spices as per taste.

 

 

Some of the famous soups in Ghanaian cuisine include 

 

  • OKRO – this soup is prepared in tomato sauce and onions along with fish, meat and various spices. This soup is commonly eaten with kenkey, banku, or rice.

 

  • PALMNUT SOUP – this soup is made with husk of crushed tomato, palm nuts, onions, spices, fish, meat, and eaten with popular Ghanaian food yam, fufu, or kenkey)

 

  • GROUNDNUT SOUP – it is cooked in onion and tomato sauce along with various spices and chicken, meat or fish. The soup is consumed with rice, fufu, kenkey, or banku.