Ghanaian Cuisine

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Ghana is a special country to me, because that’s my wife’s homeland, and she is awesome in the kitchen, preparing Ghanaian Cuisine. This small African country is BIG on good eats! Most of Ghana’s traditional foods are eaten with your hands (right hand only), but some stews and soups are also taken with the spoon.

Ghanaian Cuisine

Kenkey with Fried Fish and Peppers Sauce (Photo Attributed to Author: Kwabena)

Staples like Banku, Fufu, and Kenkey are the equivalent of my homeland’s (America) breads – almost always present and an integral part of the daily meals. You can get recipes for these staples by clicking HERE, and you will need them to prepare most of the recipes you will find here.

You will (unless you are an African living in Africa) undoubtedly come across some ingredients that are difficult to obtain at your local grocery stores. As a convenience, whenever possible, I have linked as many of these “hard to find” ingredients to our online grocery store, here within Ethnic Foods R Us, so you can have the “real thing” traditional culinary experience.

Also, I know when I am trying a new recipe I’ve never seen prepared before I like to have a visual of what it’s supposed to wind up looking like. So at the top of each recipe is a picture of the Ghana food you are about to enjoy.

Oh, and for those meals that require eating with your hands (most of them), if you want to have a truly native experience, you place a large bowl of water on the table, with a drying linen for each person. Everyone washes and dries their hands before and after each meal, and I suggest using the traditional Ghana African Black Soap. Amazing stuff, you may also want to keep some around for pleasant bathing and cleansing chores.

Enjoy these scrumptious meals!

Please note: For your convenience, you can click on the recipes listed below and be taken directly to a page with just that recipe on it, in printer-friendly format. You are certainly welcomed to read through this whole page, all the recipes are here as well, and there are some videos and pertinent information on background, history, etc., so it is well worth the read.

Here is the list, in alphabetical order:

Abenkwan (Spicy Vegetable and Seafood Soup)

Avocado Salad with Spicy Groundnut Dressing

Banku and Tilapia with Peppers Stew

Dandelion Salad Ghana Style

Garden Egg Stew

Ghanaian Black Eye Pea Curry

Goat Lite Soup

Groundnut Soup with Chicken

Jollof Rice with Chicken

Okro Stew

Red Red Stew

Volta Region Seafood Stew

Volta Region Tilapia Stew

Waakye (Saucy rice and beans dish)

Abenkwan

Abenkwan

 

 

Ingredients:
Directions:
  1. In a large, heavy stew pot, boil the palm oil for 10 minutes.
  2. Add onions and pepper and continue cooking on high heat for another 5 minutes.
  3. Reduce heat, add remaining ingredients, and simmer for an hour more until soup is somewhat thickened. Stir from time to time.
  4. If there is too much palm oil on the surface for your liking, skim it off with a large spoon before serving.

The next two dishes are salads, a couple of the easy Ghanaian recipes, but so distinctive in flavor and texture. This first one because of the very African use of their beloved peanuts. Enjoy.

Avocado Salad with Spicy Groundnut Dressing

 Avocado Salad

 Ingredients:
Directions:
  1. Cut the avocados in half lengthwise, remove the pit and cube the flesh.
  2. Place in a bowl with lemon juice, olive oil, and onion and toss gently.
  3. Grind the peanuts (either use a coffee or spice grinder or just roll a rolling pin over the peanuts) so you have small chunks and mix with the paprika, cinnamon, cayenne, sugar and salt. Sprinkle over the avocado and toss gently.
  4. Garnish with chopped cilantro and peanuts.

To most Westerners, the dandelion is just a pesky weed. dandelions-71014_640

There is a thriving industry in the USA and Canada, devoted entirely to the elimination of dandelions (along with other unwanted “weeds”) from the prim and proper, neatly and often mowed and manicured yards of middle and upper class Americans.Contemporary_home_in_Richmond,_BC

They would never think of eating them. Generally speaking, of course, there are those in the Americas who are down to earth enough to realize a decent food source when they see one, and recognize that that certain dandelion parts are edible. But for the vast majority, offering dandelions for a meal would cause an American’s nose to suddenly crinkle and drift upward.

Not so Africans, and especially not the case for Ghanaians, who relish the texture and flavor of the dandelion. On my first visit to Ghana, when I first met my now wife, she made this following version, which I now pass on to you.

Dandelion Salad, Ghana-Style

dandelion salad

Ingredients:

(serves 2)

  • 4 oz. fresh picked dandelion leaves, washed clean and torn apart
  • ½ small red onion, rough chopped
  • 1 small to medium tomato, rough chopped
  • ½ green bell pepper, cored, de-seeded, and rough chopped
  • 2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced, rough chopped, and lightly salted
  • 1 small can (3 or 4 oz.) sardines, left whole
  • Mayonnaise for dressing
  • 2 oz. cooked spaghetti (optional)
Directions:
  1. If you are going to use spaghetti, cook that well ahead of when you want to assemble the salad, and let it cool
  2. Mix all the chopped vegetable ingredients together in a mixing bowl and toss well.
  3. If using spaghetti, put the pasta in the bottom of your serving bowls, and then place the mixed salad on top, followed by a sprinkling of the chopped boiled eggs.
  4. Arrange the sardines over the top of the salad.
  5. Drizzle some mayonnaise (or dressing of your choice, my Ghanaian wife often uses Ranch or Thousand Island) over the salads, and serve.

There will be lots more salads to come on this page, but right now let’s get into some authentic and traditional Ghanaian main dishes. First up, this scrumptious grilled fish entree.

Banku and Tilapia with Peppers Stew

This dish is one of my personal favorites, the blend of textures and flavors is just exquisite!

Banku with Grilled Tialpaia and Ground Pepper

Either fry or grill a whole tilapia fish. Ghanaians typically leave the head and tail on, but you of course will need to scale the fish (if it’s not bought already scaled) and also remove the stomach as that is quite bitter.

Ingredients:
  • one whole tilapia fish (if you can get it, fresh and whole, great. If not, you can use two tilapia filets)
  • 1 tomato, rough chopped
  • 1 cup of hot peppers, the Ghanaians use Kpakps Shito (also called scotch bonnets), so use them if you can
  • 1 cup of chopped onion
  • 4 large cloves fresh garlic, fine chopped
  • 1 Maggi cube (special African seasoning cube)
  • salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
  1. Grille or broil your whole tilapia, or tilapia filets.
  2. Either use a blender or food processor to mash and blend a cup of chopped onions and a cup of hot peppers. (Note: if you really want the true African cooking experience, you can do this using a mortar and pestle).
  3. Add in the chopped tomatoes and peppers, and blend some more.
  4. Pour some cooking oil into a sauce pan and bring the heat up to medium high.
  5. Pour the blended mixture into the sauce pan.
  6. Crush the Maggi Cube and put it into the cooking mixture. Reduce heat to just a simmer.
  7. Add some salt and pepper to taste.
  8. Stir all ingredients together well, cover the pan, and bring the stew to a vigorous simmer, keep cooking until all the juice from the tomatoes is cooked out, and you are left with a very thick, spicy stew.

Serve the fish and peppers on one plate, and serve banku on a side dish, and always provide a bowl of fresh clean water, some hand soap, and a drying linen, because you eat this delightful meal with your hands. The banku is your “edible utensil” – you break off small pieces, mold it into a soft little cup shape, then use that to scoop up the stew or break off a piece of fish, then pop the whole delightful morsel in your mouth. YUMMY!

Garden Egg Stew

garden egg stew

 

Ingredients:
Directions:
  1. Boil the garden eggs for 12-15 minutes, then remove the skin and seeds.
  2. Dice the garden eggs and place in a bowl.
  3. Heat palm oil in a cooking pot for about three to five minutes over medium heat.
  4. Dice one onion and fry for three minutes.
  5. Add cayenne pepper powder and nutmeg to frying onions and let simmer for three minutes.
  6. Add dried shrimp and smoked fish to the frying onions.
  7. Blend tomatoes, habanero pepper and another onion, then add.
  8. Let sauce simmer for about 15 minutes on medium heat.
  9. Add one cup of water to the sauce and let simmer for another 20 minutes.
  10. Add the fish and diced garden eggs to the sauce and mix in well.
  11. Let the stew simmer for another 30-40 minutes on low heat.

Ghanaian Black Eye Pea Curry

Black Eye Pea Curry

Ingredients:
Directions:
  1. Place soaked beans and 4 cups of water in a saucepan and bring to a boil; reduce heat to a simmer and cook, uncovered, until tender, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
  2. Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add onions, tomatoes and chili pepper. Sauté until onion is translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, chili powder, coconut milk, turmeric, maggi cube, and broth. Simmer, uncovered, until sauce thickens, about 15-20 minutes. If sauce becomes too thick, thin with some more broth or water.
  3. Add cooked black eyed peas and salt; simmer an additional 15-20 minutes until liquid is absorbed.
  4. Serve with fresh minced cilantro and scallion, if desired.

Goat Lite Soup

Goat Lite Soup

Ingredients:
  • 18 oz. diced goat or lamb, diced (You can also use chicken, but traditional Ghanaian cuisine uses goat or lamb)
  • 6 whole tomatoes
  • Half a kpakpo shito – sometimes called a Scotch Bonnet – pepper (very hot!)
  • 2 Maggi seasoning cubes, crushed (a must ingredient)
  • ½ oz. ginger root, peeled and minced
  • ½ oz. garlic
  • 2 onions
  • 2 oz. tomato puree
  • Salt
  • 6 Garden Eggs (The African version of the aubergine, or eggplant, they are smaller than the European or American eggplants – about the size of a turkey egg. You could substitute baby eggplants and get the same effect if you can’t get the true African Garden Eggs locally)
  • Fufu, banku or rice, to serve with
Directions:
  1. Wash ginger, garlic, chili, one of the onions and three of the tomatoes, drain, place in blender, season, and blend to a paste.
  2. Place the mix on the meat with and marinade for 10 minutes.
  3. Place the meat in a pan cook gently for 10 minutes.
  4. Add tomato puree cook for 10 minutes add water 17 oz. of water and simmer until the meat is tender.
  5. Dice and add the remaining three tomatoes, the diced aubergines, the crushed Maggi cubes, and the last chopped onion. Cook for 30 minutes.
  6. Remove onions and tomatoes and pass it through the blender, then add to soup again. and bring to a simmer. Season to taste.
  7. Serve with fufu, banku or rice.

Groundnut Soup with Chicken

groundnut soup with chicken

Ingredients:
  • 3-4 lbs. of chicken pieces (free-range or roasting are best)
  • 2 onions (enough for 2 cups, chopped)
  • (NOTE: a few garlic cloves, peeled and chopped or pressed, and a teaspoon or 2 of fresh grated ginger, a sprinkling of salt or seasoned salt and ground red pepper are almost always optional seasonings for soups and stews)
  • 3-6 cups of water (depending on whether you want soup or stew)
  • 1 ½ teaspoons salt (or to taste)
  • ½ to 1 cup of creamy natural style peanut butter (no sugar added)
  • 1 8-oz can tomato sauce (or substitute fresh ground, seeded tomatoes, or pureed canned tomatoes)
  • a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste, or to taste
  • ground red pepper to taste (at least 1/8 teaspoon), or fresh hot chili pepper
  • okra, optional (about 8 fresh or about 5 oz. of frozen or canned okra, tailed and left whole or chopped), can be cooked and served alongside as a condiment or stirred into the soup while it is simmering after the peanut butter mixture has been added.
Directions:
  1. Remove skin and fat from chicken and put pieces into a heavy pot with a cup of the water. Peel and chop one of the onions and add them to the pot along with any additional seasonings (like a little salt, garlic, ginger, red pepper, etc.) and steam the chicken in a covered pot for a few minutes while you prepare the other ingredients.
  2. Add the tomato sauce and paste, the rest of the chopped onion, the red pepper, and the remaining water (start with 4 cups for the soup). Bring the soup to a boil and reduce the heat to simmer.
  3. In a medium saucepan, ladle about 2 cups of the soup broth into the pan, and mix it with the peanut butter. Heat the broth and peanut butter mixture on medium heat, stirring constantly, until the oil separates from the nuts and rises to the surface. This may take 15 or 20 minutes. NOTE: you can simply stir the peanut butter/broth mixture directly into the soup, but I’m describing how I was taught, and how I do it. Cooking it separately somehow flavors the peanut sauce more, like browning would). Keep stirring or the peanut butter will scorch, and add a little more soup broth to it if necessary.
  4. Ladle some of the soup into the sauce, stir it, and stir the mixture into the soup, taking care not to splatter yourself.
  5. Add the okra, if cooking in the soup. Allow the soup to simmer for about 20-30 minutes, until the flavors blend and the chicken and okra are cooked. Add more water if you prefer a thinner soup. Check the seasonings and add more salt, red pepper, etc., to taste.
  6. When this is prepared as a stew (thicker) it can be served over rice like a curry, and small bowls of ingredients, from chopped unsalted dry roasted peanuts, bananas, pineapple, oranges, tomatoes, red or green sweet bell peppers, coconut, grated hard-boiled egg, onions (raw or sautéed), cooked chopped okra, etc. can be served in small bowls alongside it.

Jollof Rice with Chicken

Jollof rice with fried chicken

Ingredients:
  • 8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into large pieces
  • 3 tbsp. sunflower oil
  • 1 large onion, halved and sliced
  • 3 tbsp. tomato purée
  • 1 chicken stock cube
  • 1 Maggi cube seasoning (a must ingredient for authentic results)
  • 14 oz. basmati rice
  • 1 red bell pepper, de-seeded and thickly sliced
  • 1 yellow bell pepper, de-seeded and thickly sliced
  • 6 oz. fresh okra, halved (you can also use fresh picked canned okra, if fresh is not available)
  • bunch fresh cilantro, roughly chopped, to serve
For the Ginger and Chili Base-
Directions:
  1. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tbsp. of the oil in a large deep frying pan over a high heat then add the meat and fry for about 5 minutes till golden all over. Lift out of the pan onto a plate.
  2. Add the rest of the oil to the pan and fry the onions until soft but not golden, about 5 minutes. While the onions cook, make the ginger and chili base. Put the garlic, tomatoes, ginger and chili into a food processor or blender and whiz till smooth.
  3. Add the tomato purée to the onions; fry for another 2 minutes then add the ginger and chili mix. Crumble in the stock cube, stir then pour in 20 oz. boiling water. Add the chicken, bring to a boil then simmer for 15 minutes.
  4. Put the rice into a large bowl, cover with cold water and use your hands to wash the grains. Tip the water out then repeat twice until the water runs clear. Add the rice to the pan, turn the heat down to a simmer then cover with foil and a lid (so no steam can escape) and cook for 20 minutes.
  5. Take the lid off (the rice won’t be cooked yet) then scatter the peppers and okra over the rice. Re-cover and cook for 10 minutes until the veg is softened and the rice tender. Just before serving, mix the veg through and scatter over coriander.

****************

Here is a short video on how to make this dish. This cook varies slightly in the ingredients and techniques, but that’s okay, it is still Jollof Rice and Chicken made in true Ghanaian style.

Okro Stew

 

okro stew

 

This dish, my wife will tell you, is as fundamentally traditional a Ghanaian meal as you can get. She tells me she grew up on a diet that consisted of more than 75% Okro Stew with Banku. And, it is the first dish she (like almost all other young girls) was taught how to prepare.

Always served with Banku, or sometimes Fufu or Kenkey, the stew is eaten with your right hand only and, for this born and raised American, it proved to be the most problematic dish I’ve tried. It was hard for me to get the stew into my mouth without making a mess, lol. My wife still laughs at me when I eat Okro Stew, even though I have acquired a little more skill at it. The consistency is slimy—intentionally, that’s how they love it—so unless you have the acquired skill and dexterity, the stuff will drizzle off the banku, between your fingers, and land on your shirt or lap.

Trust me, though, it is delicious!

So hey – don’t be ashamed if you have to give in and use a soup spoon at first, okay?

The Old Silly won’t tell anybody.winking smiley 2

Ingredients:
Directions:
  1. Chop the onion and cut and season the meat. Leave it to marinate for about 15 minutes.
  2. Put the meat in a pot and steam. Don’t add any water, the meat will release its juices. If the juices are drying up and the meat is still tough, add some water and keep it on the burner until it is tender enough for your taste.
  3. Meanwhile you can blend the tomato and pepper. The mixture will come out looking more green than red since there is just one tomato.
  4. Wash and cut the wele into 2″ x 2″ pieces and wash thoroughly. Depending on where you got it and what state it was in, you may have to peel a black layer from the inside. You can have this done at the market. When you get it from a supermarket, this is already done. If it is real thick and stiff, steam it in salted water with some bay leaves. Some people steam it with the meat, but I think it overwhelms the taste and smell of the meat.
  5. If you haven’t chopped the okro, now would be a good time to do it. I usually chop it as soon as I get back from the market, then freeze it till i need it. Keeping it in the fridge for a few days is alright but longer than that and it tends to become tough and stringy.
  6. Cut the stalks off the Garden eggs then cut them lengthwise down the middle. Put them in a pot with enough water to cover them then bring to a boil. Cover and cook till the white fleshy part turns translucent (10-15 minutes). Separate the flesh from the seeds and skin, add a little water and blend till smooth.
  7. Heat the Palm oil in a pot and fry the onions.
  8. Fry until they get soft but not long enough to start browning. Add the tomato/pepper puree and simmer until the liquid evaporates and it begins to fry.
  9. While the sauce cooks, get your salmon ready. If it’s straight from the market, split it down the middle and rinse out the insides (the inside are not removed from fish that is to be smoked) as well as the outside. Be sure to keep the skin. It is a personal favorite of mine although some people don’t like it. If you are like me, you probably buy a batch and freeze, in which case just take out however much you want to use.
  10. Add the salmon, meat, wele and garden egg puree. Stir gently for a minute or 2 then add a cup of water and lower the fire.
  11. Put the chopped Okro in a pot, add 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Add 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda. Keep stirring till it gets very slimy, that is what we are aiming for. The slimier it gets, the better.
  12. After a while it will be bubbling up. When it threatens to boil over the edge of the pot, it is ready.
  13. Add the okro to the main pot and stir it in.
  14. Lower the fire some more and leave to simmer gently until the okro is very soft and the broth has acquired the desired slimy consistency.
  15. Serve with Banku, Fufu, or Kenkey.

I would be remiss in not including, among the many great dishes from this country, a Ghana food recipe that is indigenous to the Northeast Volta region, my wife’s homeland, where her tribe, the Ewe people, are the most prevalent.

If you ever have the opportunity to visit Ghana, please do venture up north and take a guided tour boat ride along the vast length of beautiful Lake Volta.

lake volta 2

It’s where my dream retirement home is going to be, a beach house with an open air pavilion on the lake shore.

Volta Lake Beach HouseMagnificent.

But I digress.

The next recipe is renowned the country over, and credited to the people of the Volta region for creating it. Enjoy this authentic and traditional Ghanaian cuisine.

Red Red Stew

red red stew

Ingredients:
  • 9 oz. (250 grams) dried red pinto beans (or you can use black eyed peas)
  • Red palm oil (a must ingredient, no other oil will give you the real flavor)
  • 4 medium sized red onions, rough chopped
  • 1) 7 oz. canned tomato paste
  • 1 or 2 Scotch Bonnet chilies, depending on how spicy hot you like it
  • 3 cm (1-1/4”) fresh ginger root
  • 4 large cloves of garlic
  • 8 ripe Roma plum tomatoes, rough chopped, divided
  • 10 oz. water
  • 3 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. granulated white cane sugar
  • Plantains, to serve on the side

 

Directions:
  1. Wash the beans well, then put them in a cooking pot well covered with water, and bring the heat up high, to achieve a rolling boil. Boil the beans for about a half an hour, or until good and tender soft. Drain them in a sieve or colander and set aside.
  2. Using a large sauce pan, add in lots of red palm oil, bring the heat up to medium high, and fry your chopped onion for 5 or 6 minutes, until translucent and fragrant, then reduce heat to a mild simmer.
  3. While the onions are cooking, using a blender, or, if you’re in the mood to prepare the dish in authentic Ghanaian fashion, a mortar and pestle, grind ½ of the chopped tomatoes, garlic, chilies, and ginger into a smooth paste.
  4. Add the ground paste into the pan with the onions, then add the rest of the rough chopped tomatoes, the water, salt, and a teaspoon of sugar. Bring the mixture up to a boil, and cook for another half an hour.
  5. Now add in the softened and drained beans. This will lower the temperature of the stew, so bring I back to a rolling boil for just 2 or 3 minutes, and then turn the heat off. Let the stew rest for about 15 minutes.
  6. Do a taste test, and add spices and salt as needed. Cover the pan and keep nice and warm while you quickly prepare the plantains. (or you could do the plantain preparation while the stew is cooking)
  7. Peel the plantains and chop them into small pieces. Fry the pieces in some red palm oil, until they are soft and have turned brown. Drain them of excess oil on some paper towel, and season with just salt and pepper, or any spicier hot seasonings you like.
  8. Sever the stew in attractive earthen serving bowls placed on a large platter, with the fried plantain pieces encircling the bowl. Or, and this is also typical of the region, you can serve the stew in a bowl with a separate side dish of the fried plantain.

fried plantain

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