An Introduction to Ghanaian Food

In this blog post, I will be providing a brief introduction to Ghanaian food. This post is to serve as a reference point for anyone curious about what Ghanaian food is, what ingredients we use, and recipes that define Ghanaian food. I intend to share how our geography, traditions and climate impact the foods we eat.

What is Ghanaian Food

Ghanaian food is diverse. It is a product of its climate, its history and its people. Simply put, Ghanaian food consists of a lot of spicy soups and stews made with a lot of tomatoes, onions, pepper, ginger and a variety of indigenous spices. Stews are thick and are usually accompanied with starchy tubers like the West African yam, or plantains. Soups are light and accompanied with a variety of starchy swallows made from tubers like cassava, cocoyam or West African yam, plantains or corn. If we are not eating a swallow or starchy tuber, we are eating rice. Plain rice, jollof rice, waakye, agwa mu, fried rice, the list goes on and on.

In this blog post, I hope to break down these major categories as there is a lot of variation even in how soups and swallows are made.

Geography and Food

In order to talk about the diversity of Ghanaian food, we need to talk about the Ghanaian climate. Ghana is a sub-Saharan country situated in West Africa, specifically on the Gulf of Benin. Although one of the smallest countries in Africa, Ghana spans over four different climate zones. These zones define the foods that are available and eaten throughout the year.

The southern part of the country is forested, humid and wet. For this reason, you will get a lot of fresh fruits, greens, plantains, tubers (cassava, cocoyam) and oil palm. These regions also grow a majority of the cacao grown in Ghana (Ghana is the second-largest exporter of cacao beans).

Moving north, there is a transition zone in the Brong Ahafo Region where the climate transitions from tropical to Savanah. The northern part of Ghana touches the southern portion of the Sahel region in Africa. It is dry, but still bountiful, with the land filled with grassland and deciduous trees. Most of the food consumed in Ghana is actually grown from the transition zone upwards. This includes most crops grown in the forested regions as well as rice, tubers, millet, fonio, guinea corn, vegetables, cash crops like shea butter, and superfoods like baobab and moringa.

Important Ingredients

Based on where one finds themselves, certain ingredients are more important than others. However, to avoid this blog post getting too long, I will summarize the major ingredients into groups.

Aromatics

Ginger, onion, pepper are the holy trifecta for Ghanaian soups and stews. Ghanaians love heat and spice, which must be present in every single soup and stew. Together with tomatoes, they form the foundation for many Ghanaian foods.

Legumes

What makes Ghanaian food plant-based friendly are the copious amounts of legumes we consume. The beans are all part of the cowpea family with Black eye peas being the most popular. Black eye peas come in different sizes and colours. They are boiled, steamed, mashed and fried into kose or tuubani or even roasted and used for porridge. Aside from cowpeas, we also consume a groundnut called Bambara beans. These are indigenous to Sub Sahara Africa and come in different colours. They are incredibly nutritious and go hand in hand with plantains. Ghanaians also consume a moderate amount of soybeans grown up north.

Greens and Vegetables

Cocoyam leaves form the foundation for very popular dishes in the forest regions. Many people know nkontomire stew or palava sauce (click here for recipe) which is a cocoyam leaf stew cooked with red palm oil, tomatoes and agushie. In the Ashanti region, it is boiled and mashed with onions, tomatoes and pepper for a quick lunch called abomu. It is also added to a delicious and medicinal soup called ebunu ebunu. Aside from cocoyam leaves, we also eat a variety of greens, whose English names I do not even know. One other popular green is jute mallow or ademe, which is slippery and used in soups, especially in northern Ghana.

In Ghana, we do eat vegetables just like every other country. You will usually find cabbage, carrot, green pepper to name a few. Popular local vegetables include garden eggs. These are basically baby eggplant that have a yellowish-white skin. Okra is indigenous to West Africa and is quite popular. Lastly, many Ghanaians include turkey berries (abedru) in soups and stews. Aside from flavour they provide iron and antioxidants.

Grains and Tubers

Tubers are the backbone of Ghanaian food. We eat a lot of tubers in rotation every single day. Cassava and cocoyam made their way to the continent via trade and are important ingredients in fufu. However, the king of all tubers: the West African Yam. This is the major starch in Southern ghana and it is enjoyed with a variety of stews. It is usually boiled or fried and plays the role of french fires in many restaurants. Some also include yam in fufu.

Ghanaians love grains. These are usually grown up north and form the bulk of many northern diets. These grains include pearl millet, sorghum, fonio, guinea corn and rice. The grains are milled into flour or used to make very popular porridges like Hausa koko (spicy millet porridge) and tom brown (roasted grain porridge) just to name a few.

Rice

I have dedicated a specific section to rice because it is a big part of Ghanaian and the West African diet in general. There are two known species of cultivated rice in the world Oryza Sativa (Asia) and Oryza Glaberimma (African). Although the Asian species have flooded the markets of many African c countries, the African varietal is still as essential in our diet, where some local dishes require it. They come in all different shapes, sizes and colours and can be cooked how white or brown rice is cooked, depending on the colour. You can check out this Instagram video for more details on this rice. (Click here)

If you are looking for staple Ghanaian rice-based dishes, you can also check out this blog post. (Click Here)

Nuts and Seeds

Nuts and seeds are integral to the Ghanaian diet. The popular option depends on the part of Ghana one finds themselves. Up north, shea nuts are an integral part of life. Not only is the shea butter used for cosmetic products, but it is also used to cook many dishes, including the local Jollof Rice named dafaduka.

As you move south, coconut and palm nut become commonplace. The red palm nut is an essential part of many Ghanaian soups and stews. Indigenous to West Africa, they usually grow wild or are included in agroforests amidst cacao and cassava plants. The entire nut (both the kernel and the shaft) is consumed in soups and stews. If you want to read more about palm oil in West Africa, please check out this blog post.

Peanuts are included in soups, added to breakfast porridge and accompany many roadside snacks. In Ghana, you will most likely indulge in some of the best and freshest peanut butter you have ever tried.

Spices

I think what makes Ghana really unique is our use of varied indigenous spices. If you are familiar with Nigerian food you might recognize some of these spices. However, I think that indigenous spices are far more commonplace in everyday Ghanaian cooking as compared to the West African countries.

Key spices include calabash nutmeg (whediaba), grains of Selim (hwentia), efom wisa (alligator pepper), esoro wisa (negro pepper), prekese (Tetrapleura tetraptera) and fermented African Locust Beans (dawa dawa). We use them in our porridge, soups, stews, rice dishes and everything in between. For more details about important Ghanain spices, please check out this link. In addition to indigenous spices, Ghanaians are very adventurous with spices. Stews, soups and rice dishes also use varied combinations of curry powder, anise seeds, nutmeg, cloves, star anise and coriander seeds.

What do Ghanaians Eat During the Day?

Now that we have discussed ingredients, let’s dive into what Ghanaians actually eat during the day. Although we do have some designated breakfast and lunch meals, many of these meals can be consumed for breakfast and dinner. Some meals sold early in the morning are also sold late at night. Some meals are served early in the morning until mid-day; it all depends on what a person is craving. The foods described below are popular options. This list is not the long extensive list of foods enjoyed across Ghana.

Breakfast

 Breakfast is actually something people take very very seriously. Households eat different things, but I have decided to highlight a few classics.

1. Hausa Koko, the breakfast of champions. It is a fermented millet porridge with spices like ginger, grains of selim, calabash nutmeg, cloves and pepper. It has a slight heat to it and it pairs perfectly with some fresh kose (Nigerians call this akara) it is a naturally vegan breakfast and can be highly nutritious, as long it is not packed with too much sugar
2. At home ghanaians make a variety of breakfasts, there is tea and bread with egg. The bread is either sugar bread, butter bread or tea bread. Slathered with a ton of margarine (we are less of a butter kind of people and more margarine, which means I too can enjoy some)
3. If you want something hearty, waakye might be the choice for you. Yes, waakye in the morning! I think it’s a great breakfast, a good balance of carbs, protein, vegetables and an assortment of toppings. It will have you set for the entire day!
4. Some other breakfast foods include tom brown, which is a roasted grain and bean porridge made with roasted black eye peas, roasted millet, roasted corn, roasted peanuts and spices.
5. Less popular options include rice water and corn grits (oblayo)

Lunch and Dinner

Stew and Starch

1. Ampesi: Ampesi is boiled west African yam and/or apem (green plantain) with kontomire stew (palava sauce). The stew is made with cocoyam leaves, cooked in a spicy tomato sauce with palm oil, spices and agushie. Some add beans for more substance, which is knowns as konto-beans.
2. Abomu: If you do not have time, you can make make a quick sauce, which when served with boiled yam or plantain, is called abomu. It is usually onion, tomato, pepper and cooked down cocoyam leaves that are mashed in the earthenware. We add peanut butter and pour over hot red palm oil with sautéed onions and spices. It is best served with avocado.
3. Fried Plantains and Bean/also known as Red Red. Plantain and beans is a lunchtime favourite. The beans can either be cooked plain and doused with hot palm oil fried with spices or made into a tomato-based stew. The beans are accompanied with hot fried plantains and sometimes gari (dried cassava couscous).

Swallows

A swallow is basically a ball of some kind of tuber or carbohydrate that is served with a soup or sauce. Being biased, I think Ghanaians have mastered swallows. Different techniques, different flavours, different combinations, different tubers. These are served with such a diversity of soups and stews. These are the popular ones in Ghana but there are so many regional varieties that are not even known across the country.

NON FERMENTED SWALLOWS

1. Fufu. Some have mentioned that the original fufu was from Ghana, but I cannot verify nor dispute this claim. In Ghana, it is pounded plantain and/or cassava. As you move up north, people add West African yam. Cocoyam is also added to some fufus. Fufu is usually served with a very loose soup: popular options are light soup, groundnut/peanut soup and palm nut soup.
2. TZ: Tuo zaafi is a northern classic, made with cassava and cornflour. This soft swallow is usually eaten with ayoyo soup (jute mallow soup) and a rich tomato stew. Tuo can also be made with millet and sorghum.
3. Kokonte/Face the Wall. Kokonte is a very niche swallow. It is made with dried cassava that is milled into flour and cooked into a ball. It is usually served with a variety of soups.
4. Omutuo: Rice balls. Rice balls are rice based swallows made with white rice that is mashed and formed into a ball.

FERMENTED SWALLOWS

1. Kenkey. Kenkey/komi/dokonu/komi is a fermented corn swallow eaten across southern Ghana and even Togo. Fantes and Gas make theirs very differently. The Ga kenkey is wrapped in a corn husk and FantI kenkey is wrapped in green leaves; both have very different flavours and processes. These are usually served with “pepper” — mashed tomato, onion and pepper, and shito.
2. Banku: Banku is a fermented corn and cassava swallow eaten in Southern Ghana. It is usually paired with okra soup but it is also eaten with pepper.
   • There are a lot of details about banku that the average Ghanaian doesn’t pay attention to. The Ga version of banku may or may not have cassava and it is fermented for a long time (5-7days)
   • the Ewe version also known as Amokple uses cornmeal, mixed with cassava dough and fermented briefly

Regionally specific swallows

Ewokple/Akple — this is a corn-based swallow eaten by the Ewe people. To non-Ewe peoples, it is known as akple but the corn-based swallow is traditionally called amokple

Etew– it is a fermented corn swallow based out of the Central region. This is pretty much Banku but without the cassava
Placali

SOUPS AND STEWS

Popular soups enjoyed with fufu include light soup, groundnut soup (click here), palm nut soup, cocoyam leaf soup. Banku is usually accompanied with okra soup. However, swallows and soups are usually mixed and matched depending on what people have available at home. Unfortunately, soups are made with a base of steamed meat, but I do make mine with mushrooms, which works out just as fine. Mushrooms are quite popular in Ghana and are usually included in soups when they are in season. Other local soups include dried okra soup and baboab leaf soup, whihc are popular in Northern Ghana.

Stews are also varied across the country. Aside from the nkontomire stew mentioned above, there is beans stew and a simple tomato stew. Mastering tomato stew means mastering a lot of Ghanaian cooking, as it serves as the base for many dishes. However, tomato stew can be enjoyed plain.

Rice

Rice is a major part of any Ghanaian celebration. At a Ghanaian party, you are at best to find at least three different selections of rice (jollof rice, waakye and fried rice).

1. Anyone who tells you that Ghanaians eat basmati rice has never been to a Ghanaian house. The rice of choice ALWAYS is perfume long-grain jasmine rice.
2. We also have many varieties of local rice, as West Africa has its own indigenous species of rice that has been cultivated for centuries. Some dishes that use local rice include kwenkwen, which is a fish-based jollof rice from northern Ghana.
3. Popular rice dishes include the famous Jollof Rice (best in West Africa), waakye, agwa mu and fried rice. For more in-depth information on Rice, please check out this blog post.