Top 10 African Foods From Ghana You Need To Try
Known for their rich textures, delectable Moorish flavours, and healthy vegetable bases, African foods are being increasingly appreciated by most people all across the world.
Food is central to Ghanaian life, just like in every culture regardless of where you might find yourself. From Fufu to Banku, everyone has a favourite dish, and every region has its own speciality.
Ghanaian food is majorly characterised by the distribution of food crops, with the dominance of tropical produce, including corn, beans, yams, cassava, plantains, and millet. Ghanaians have creatively used these foodstuffs to make sumptuous meals full of nourishment.
Below are the top 10 popular African foods from Ghana; you must try:
Fufu
Fufu is arguably one of the most popular African foods not only in West Africa but also in Central Africa. It’s a dough made from a mixture of green plantains and cassava, with the frequent addition of cocoyam.
The preparation process is tedious since it involves pounding the cassava and unripe plantains together with a big wooden pole and mashing them while adding water until it forms a soft, sticky paste.
The mixture is then cooked in oil and pepper or fish. It’s usually served with different soups, meat, vegetable stews, and sauce.
Depending on the region, this dish might have several names, including foofoo and foufou.
Chichinga
Chichinga is the most popular Ghanaian street food. It’s a kebab (kyinkying) made from beef, sausage, or chicken, rubbed with suya (peanut spice, ground spice, and hot chilli peppers). Mostly served with rice, Ghanaian salads, or fried plantains. This food is the embodiment of Ghanaian taste.
Banku
Banku is a local Ghanaian food made from fermented corn which is amalgamated along with salt and water to have a dough-like consistency. It’s also made from cassava dough. It features a neutral taste and can be served mostly with fried fish, Okra, or pepper stews.
Kontimire Soup
Also known as ebunu ebunu or palava sauce, Kontimire is a delicious Ghanaian soup made from smoked fish, mushrooms, snails, and cocoyam leaves. It derives its green colour from cocoyam leaves.
It’s no surprise to find an assortment of meat, including seafood and crustaceous in Kontimire soup. Mostly it’s served with Fufu, boiled ripe plantain, or rice.
Kontimire is fibre and iron-rich and will provide you with a distinct flavour of every ingredient. The soup will assault your taste buds like Oliver twist and leave you yearning for more.
Kelewele
No African foods list will be complete without mention this savoury side dish. It’s a flavoured Ghanaian dish featuring deep-fried plantain chunks soaked in a medley of salt, hot pepper, garlic, and ginger.
Usually served as accompaniments to bean stews or rice dishes. Also, it’s sold by most Ghanaian street vendors as a dessert.
Kelewele can also consist of cloves, peanuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, which will give the dish a distinct layer of flavour. It’s sweet and spicy. While its exterior has a crispy and crunchy texture, it’s inside is soft, providing you with a unique sweetness.
Red Red
Many people will shy away at first sight of beans, but Ghanaian Red Red is one of the few foods that has been able to re-ignite the love of beans in people. It’s usually cooked in bean curry, which includes fish, prawns or meat.
Red Red demonstrated Ghanaian cuisine at its best. It’s made of cowpeas, tomato paste, red palm oil, and seasonings like chilli, garlic, onions, and ginger. Often served with fried plantains on the side.
Shito
Shito is the mother of all condiments in Ghana. It’s more like ketchup for Americans and mustard for Britons. It’s made from a mixture of processed black pepper, dry shrimps, and dry fish. Be warned it comes with a punch, but also it has the most sumptuous flavour.
Garden Egg Stew
Another popular food in Ghana is Garden Egg stew. It features African eggplant or garden eggs. Although the eggplant is a fruit, it’s usually prepared as a vegetable stew combined with onions, dried fish, shrimp, palm oil, and additional seasonings like ginger and nutmeg, served mostly with boiled plantains.
Kenkey
Kenkey is a staple food commonly found in Ghanaian Cost. It’s made of fermented maise dough, wrapped in banana leaves, served mostly with grilled tilapia, hot sauce, or pepper, alternatively known as Kuno or Kokoe.
Palm Nut Soup
The last food on our list is the Palm Nut Soup, which comprises of palm nut pulp, smoked fish or meat, water, onions, tomatoes, and seasonings like salt, garlic, and chilli peppers. This mixture is cooked together till it forms a thick, stew texture. Best served as an accompaniment to rice dishes and Fufu.
It’s not only famous in Ghana but also in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea.
Final Thoughts
Although we’ve mentioned the top 10 best Ghanaian dishes, there are still many great foods we haven’t mentioned. The list is endless, from ceremonial dishes to street foods that will surely captivate your taste buds and leave you begging for more. So keep on researching.
