Couscous

🇨🇮Côte d'Ivoire

Attiéké

Cassava peeled, grated, fermented for a day with a starter of older mash, pressed dry, sieved into granules and steamed into a light couscous.

🇸🇳Senegal

Bassi Salté

Basi salte

Steamed millet couscous served under a lamb and vegetable stew with raisins and chickpeas.

🇲🇷Mauritania

Cherchem

Millet cooked with a savoury vegetable sauce of tomatoes, carrots, sweet potato, bell pepper, and spices; a one-pot millet dish eaten across Mauritania, simpler than ngomou but a daily staple in the south and central regions.

🇬🇲The Gambia

Chereh Millet Couscous

Chereh

Steamed pearl-millet couscous served beneath a sauce of greens, okra, peanuts, dried fish, and sometimes beef or chicken.

🇩🇿Algeria

Couscous

كسكس

Steamed semolina granules served with vegetables, pulses, meat, or fish; couscous has distinct preparations across North Africa.

🇱🇾Libya

Couscous Bil Bosla

Libyan couscous steamed with onions (bosla), tomatoes, and spices, served with a rich meat or vegetable sauce.

🇱🇾Libya

Couscous Bil Hoot

Libyan fish couscous: couscous steamed and served with a tomato and pepper sauce over whole fish.

🇪🇭Western Sahara

Couscous Khoumassi

Multi-grain couscous made from five cereals: soft wheat (30-35%), durum wheat (20-25%), barley (20-25%), roasted barley (10-17%), and roasted maize (1-3%); an IGP (Indication Géographique Protégée) product of the Saharan regions; a Slow Food Ark of Taste product; produced by 15 cooperatives.

🇧🇯North (Parakou / Borgou / Bariba), Benin

Dambou

Steamed cereal granules made from rice or maize, mixed with moringa leaves; a northern Benin specialty from Parakou; light and nutritious; served with sauce.

🇳🇪Niger

Dambou

A festive Zarma and Songhai couscous-like dish from Niger: steamed granules of rice, millet, or fonio fluffed with moringa leaves, onion, chilli, groundnut, and sometimes dried fish or meat; served at weddings and celebrations.

🇲🇱Mali

Dogon Somé

A Dogon (Mali) dish of millet couscous or porridge, often served with a peanut or okra sauce.

🇬🇲The Gambia

Findi

A fine, couscous-like grain used in The Gambia as an alternative to rice, especially beneath groundnut stews such as domoda.

🇬🇳Moyenne-Guinée (Fouta Djallon / Labé), Guinea

Fögnè Sourtinaadi

Fögnè sortinaadi

Fonio couscous with peanut butter meatballs in tomato and vegetable sauce; a festival dish from the Fouta Djallon; the Fulani people's celebration specialty.

🇲🇱Mali

Malian Couscous

Couscous

Malian couscous made from millet or sorghum; steamed and served with meat, vegetable, or peanut sauces; the Mali tourism document notes that millet couscous has an exquisite flavor; different from North African couscous which uses wheat; a staple dish across Mali; served at celebrations and family meals; the couscous of the Sahel.

🇹🇳Tunisia

Masfouf

مسفوف

Sweet steamed couscous with butter, sugar, raisins, dates and pomegranate seeds or almonds, eaten at breakfast and in Ramadan.

🇩🇿Algeria

Mesfouf

مسفوف

Light steamed couscous tossed with butter, sugar, dried fruit, or pomegranate and served for breakfast or gatherings.

🇧🇫Burkina Faso

Millet Couscous

Couscous de Mil

Millet grains rolled and steamed into couscous, served with groundnut sauce, milk or a savoury stew.

🇲🇷Senegal River Valley (Trarza / Gorgol / Guidimaka), Mauritania

Ngomou

Hand-rolled millet or sorghum couscous steamed and served under a thick sauce of lalo (baobab leaf powder), meat, and vegetables; a Pulaar specialty of the Senegal River valley, distinct from wheat-based Moroccan couscous.

🇲🇱Mali

Sarakolé Millet Couscous

Bassi

A millet couscous from the Sarakolé (Soninke) people of the Kayes region; made with millet couscous, baobab leaf powder, tomato sauce, milk, and peanut; listed in the Mali tourism document as a regional specialty; a hearty, nutritious dish that reflects the agricultural traditions of western Mali; served at family gatherings.

🇩🇿Algeria

Seffa

السفة

A celebration mound of steamed couscous or vermicelli finished with butter, sugar, cinnamon, and almonds.

🇹🇳Sfax, Tunisia

Sfax Fish Couscous

كسكسي بالحوت

Whole grouper or sea bream cooked in a red harissa broth with quince and vegetables, served over couscous steamed in the fish steam.

🇲🇷Mauritania

Thiéré

Ceere

Millet steamed into fine couscous grains, the traditional starch of the interior before rice took over.

🇹🇳Tunisia

Tunisian Couscous

كسكسي

Tunisian couscous steamed over a red broth seasoned with tomato, harissa, garlic, and tabil.

🇧🇯North (Parakou / Borgou / Bariba), Benin

Wassa-Wassa

Granulated couscous made from dried yam flour; a 'yam couscous' from northern and central Benin; steamed and served with sauce goussi or sauce arachide.

🇬🇭Ghana

Yakayake

Grated cassava steamed into loose, slightly sour granules, eaten with a hot pepper sauce and fried fish.