Ghana
Kenkey
Kom
Fermented corn dough part-cooked, wrapped in corn husks or plantain leaves and steamed into dense, sour balls.
western-africa
Ghana
Explore 67 foods connected to Ghana, from everyday staples to rare local specialties.
67 foods12 leading categories1 Essentials guides
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The local shortlist
Ghana Essentials
12 editor-selected foods for understanding the place through what people eat.
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Traditional foods from Ghana.
67 foods in this view. Filter by category, type, rarity, or search every recorded name.
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Togo
Kokonte
Dried cassava milled into flour and cooked into a stiff, dark grey-brown staple, nicknamed face-the-wall.
Ghana
Konkonte
A dark cassava-flour dough cooked into a Ghanaian swallow and eaten with soup.
Ghana
Kontomire Stew
Kontomire
Cocoyam leaves boiled down and cooked with palm oil, egusi, onion, smoked fish and boiled egg.
Ghana
Kuli Kuli
Groundnut paste with the oil pressed out, spiced and deep-fried into hard rings or sticks, eaten alone or crumbled over other food.
Ghana
Lamugee
Lamugin
Millet flour drink spiced with ginger and cloves, sweetened and served cold in the north.
Ghana
Light Soup
Nkrakra
Thin, fiery tomato and pepper broth with goat, chicken or fish and often garden eggs blended into it.
Nigeria
Moin Moin
Mọ́ín mọ́ín
The same ground bean batter steamed rather than fried, in leaves or tins, with egg, fish or corned beef set inside.
Ghana
Mpotompoto
Yam or cocoyam cooked in a lot of water with palm oil, pepper, onion and tomato until it collapses into a thick pottage.
Cameroon
Nigerian Jollof Rice
Jollof rice
Long-grain rice cooked down in a blended base of red pepper, tomato, onion and scotch bonnet until the grain absorbs it all and the bottom of the pot catches.
Ghana
Nkate Cake
Roasted groundnuts set in dark caramelised sugar and cut into slabs while still warm.
Nigeria
Okra Soup
Ila alasepo
Chopped okra cooked briefly in a pepper and palm oil base with fish and meat, kept slippery and barely cooked.
Ghana
Omo Tuo
White rice cooked soft and pounded into balls, served in groundnut or palm nut soup.
Cameroon
Palm Nut Soup
Abenkwan
Palm fruit boiled and pounded, the extracted cream simmered with fish, snails, goat or beef into a thick orange soup.
Guinée Forestière (Nzérékoré / Forest), The Gambia
Palm Wine
Emu
Sap tapped from a palm tree and fermenting from the moment it is collected — milky, sweet in the morning, sour and stronger by evening.
Ghana
Pito
Beer brewed from fermented millet or sorghum in the north, sold from calabashes at drinking spots.
Côte d'Ivoire
Plakali
Fresh cassava dough cooked alone into a soft, glossy staple, popular among the Ahanta and Nzema of the west.
Ghana
Red Red
Black-eyed peas stewed with palm oil, tomato, onion and chilli until deep orange, served with fried ripe plantain and gari.
Ghana
Rice Balls
Omotuo
Ghanaian rice cooked very soft, moulded into smooth balls and served with a rich soup.
Ghana
Roasted plantain
Kofi brokeman
Ripe plantain roasted whole over charcoal until blackened and sold with a handful of raw groundnuts.
Sierra Leone
Roasted Plantain
Bọ̀lì
Firm plantain roasted whole over open coals until blackened outside, split and eaten with roasted groundnuts or pepper sauce.
Ghana
Shea Butter
Nkuto
Nuts of the shea tree boiled, pounded and churned into a pale, nutty cooking fat used across the north.
Ghana
Shito
Black chilli paste of dried pepper, ginger, garlic, dried shrimp and smoked fish fried slowly in oil until it turns near-black.
Ghana
Tatale
Overripe plantain mashed with flour, onion, ginger and chilli and fried into flat, dark, sweet-savoury pancakes.
Ghana
Tom Brown
Maize roasted then milled with groundnut and soya, cooked into a nutty brown breakfast porridge.
Ghana
Tubaani
Bambara or black-eyed beans ground, wrapped in leaves and steamed into a firm savoury cake, eaten with oil and pepper.
Ghana
Tuo Zaafi
Northern staple of millet or maize flour cooked stiff and served with an okra and ayoyo leaf soup.
Ghana
Waakye
Ayimolou
Rice and cowpeas boiled together with dried sorghum leaves, which stain the whole pot reddish-brown, served with a spread of sides.
North (Parakou / Borgou / Bariba), Benin
Wagasi
Cow's milk cheese with a red rind; made by Fulani (Peul) people; doesn't melt easily; fried and served in sauces or as a snack; a northern Benin specialty; a TasteAtlas-listed item.
Ghana
Wele
Cow hide singed, scraped and boiled until it turns gelatinous, then added to soups and to waakye.
Ghana
Yakayake
Grated cassava steamed into loose, slightly sour granules, eaten with a hot pepper sauce and fried fish.