Cornmeal is a meal ground from dried corn (maize). It is a common staple food, and is ground to coarse, medium, and fine consistencies, but not as fine as wheat flour can be. In Mexico, very finely ground cornmeal is referred to as corn flour. When fine cornmeal is made from maize that has been soaked in an alkaline solution, e.g., limewater, it is called masa harina, which is used for making arepas, tamales and tortillas. Boiled cornmeal is called polenta in Italy and is also a traditional dish and bread substitute in Romania.
Fufu is a pounded meal found in West African cuisine. It is a Twi word that originates from the Akans in Ghana. The word, however, has been expanded to include several variations of the pounded meal found in other African countries including Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, Cote D'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Angola and Gabon.
In West Africa, garri is the flour of the fresh starchy cassava root.
Àmàlà is a staple swallow food native to the Yoruba ethnic group of Southwestern Nigeria and other parts of Yorubaland. It is made of yam, cassava flour, or unripe plantain flour. Tubers of yams are peeled, sliced, cleaned, dried and then ground into flour. It is also called èlùbọ́. Yams are white in colour but turn brown when dried which gives àmàlà its colour. It is a popular side dish served with ewédú and gbẹ̀gìrì, but is also served with a variety of other ọbè(soups), such as ẹ̀fọ́, ilá, and ogbono.
Àkàrà (Yoruba)(English: bean cake; Hausa: kosai; Portuguese: acarajé is a type of fritter made from cowpeas or beans from Yorubaland in Nigeria, Togo and Benin. It is found throughout West African, Caribbean, and Brazilian cuisines. The dish is traditionally encountered in Brazil's northeastern state of Bahia, especially in the city of Salvador. Acarajé serves as both a religious offering to the gods in the Candomblé religion and as street food. The dish was brought by enslaved peoples from West Africa, and can still be found in various forms in Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Mali, Gambia, Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone.
Peanut stew or groundnut stew, also known as maafe, sauce d'arachide (French) or tigadèguèna is a stew that is a staple food in Western Africa. It originates from the Mandinka and Bambara people of Mali.
West African cuisine encompasses a diverse range of foods that are split between its 16 countries. In West Africa, many families grow and raise their own food, and within each there is a division of labor. Indigenous foods consist of a number of plant species and animals, and are important to those whose lifestyle depends on farming and hunting.
Nigerian cuisine consists of dishes or food items from the hundreds of Native African ethnic groups that comprise Nigeria. Like other West African cuisines, it uses spices and herbs with palm or groundnut oil to create deeply flavored sauces and soups.
Peanut soup or groundnut soup is a soup made from peanuts, often with various other ingredients. It is a staple African cuisine but is also eaten in East Asia (Taiwan), the United States and other areas around the world. It is also common in some regions, such as Argentina northwest, Bolivia and Peru, where it can sometimes be served with bone meat and hollow short pasta or fries. In Ghana it is often eaten with fufu, omo tuo and banku often very spicy. Groundnut soup is also a native soup of the Benin (Edo) people in Nigeria and it is often eaten with pounded yam. Some of the essential ingredients used in making it are Piper guineense and Vernonia amygdalina.
Tuwon masara is a corn flour swallow eaten in the northern part of Nigeria.
Palm nut soup or banga is a soup made from palm fruit common in the Ghanaian, Nigerian, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ivorian communities. The soup is made from a palm cream or palm nut base with stewed marinated meats, smoked dried fish, and aromatics. It is often eaten with starch, fufu, omotuo, banku, fonio, or rice. The use of the palm fruit in cooking is significant in Nigerian, Ghanaian and other West and Central African cuisine.
Miyar Kuka or Miyan Kuka, also known as Luru soup, is a type of soup popular among West Africa’s Sahelian ethnic groups. The soup is made from powdered baobab leaves. It is usually served with Tuwo or Fufu. A seasonal variant of this soup is made using fresh mashed baobab leaves. This variant is only available during the rainy season when fresh baobab leaves are available.
Ofada rice is a Yoruba dish. It is the name of an indigenous rice from a small community called Ofada, located in the Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State. It is not exclusively grown in the community, but it is an indigenous rice grown in southwest Nigeria but named after the Ofada community. It is used in making a variety of dishes. Ofada rice are mostly blends, and some of the rice varieties in the blends are not indigenous to Africa; however, they usually also contain African rice. It is grown almost exclusively in Ogun State, a state in southwestern Nigeria. Ofada rice is grown on free-draining soil where the water table is permanently below the root of the plant.
Edikang ikong is a vegetable soup that originated among the Efik people of Cross River State and Akwa Ibom State in Southsouthern Nigeria. It is considered to be a delicacy among some Nigerians, and is sometimes served during occasions of importance. Edikang ikong is a nutritious soup and expensive to prepare, and has been described as being mostly eaten by rich people in Nigeria. Ingredients used in edikang ikong include beef and dried fish, bush meat, crayfish, shaki, kanda, pumpkin leaves, water leaves, ugu, onion, periwinkle, palm oil, salt and pepper.
Hausa cuisines are traditional and modern food prepared by Hausa people. It is based on the availability of raw food materials they can farm or provide from other places. Most times Hausa people depend purely on the farm products they have cultivated for food preparations. Hausa people have a meal that is common to most Zongo communities called Tuo Zaafi.
Miyar Zogale is an Hausa dish also known as morning soup. It is made with moringa leaf as the main ingredient, others include groundnut paste, grounded tomato, beef, cubes, daddawa and palm oil.
Gurasa is a local bread originating from the Northern part of Nigeria, specifically Kano state. It is similar to bread except the dough is lighter. This local Northern bread is eaten for breakfast, lunch, or as a snack.
Sinasir is a Nigerian delicacy made from rice popular amongst the northern region. The type of rice used are of two types: Cooked and soaked rice.
Potato fufu is a staple swallow food taken by the northern region of Nigeria. It is popular among the Yoruba tribe living in Kwara state. The swallow food is easy to make compared to pounded yam and its unique taste is why the food is prepared at weddings, parties and other occasions.
Swallows are a category of dough-like African staple food made of cooked starchy vegetables and/or grains. Fufu of Western Africa, ugali and nsima of Eastern Africa, and sadza of Southern Africa are examples of swallows.
