The Canadian African Holiday Gift Guide

I just wanted to provide a gift guide for gifts that I personally would like to receive and also celebrate African Products. This gift guide is geared towards my North American audience and includes affiliate links for products.

Books

Even as a food blogger, I use cookbooks on a regular basis. These cookbooks are on rotation in my kitchen celebrating cooks from all parts of the world. I have provided Amazon links (Canada) for these cookbooks but if possible, please support local book stores.

A seat at the Vegan Table

Obviously, I have to plug in my own e-book filled with amazing Ghanaian inspired recipes

In Bibi’s Kitchen

In Bibi’s Kitchen: This cookbook is an introductory book to Eastern and Southern African cooking. The book highlights home-cooked recipes by women from 8 African countries as well as information on these cultures. This cookbook is not vegan but a majority of the recipes are vegan friendly. My personal favourite is the Zanzibar Pilau.

The Korean Vegan Cookbook

The Korean Vegan: Joanne’s cookbook is honestly a masterpiece on its own. Woven with essential Korean and fusion recipes are intimate stories of an immigrant Korean family that is authentic and heartfelt. The recipes are well written and incredibly easy to follow. If you want to learn more about Korean Food this is it.

Vegetable Kingdom: The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes

Cookbook by Afro-vegan chef Bryan Terry highlight vegan food through the lens of many Afro cultures. The book also comes with a dope playlist and recipes that introduce you to recipes that showcase Black culture and underscore how plant-based eating has been a huge part of Afro food culture.

Vegan Nigerian Kitchen: 100 classic recipes with a plant-based twist

Tomi’s second cookbook provides an array of Nigerian-inspired vegan recipes. If you want to learn more about one of the most diverse food cultures in Africa this is definitely the book for you.

Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen

Zoe cookbook is such a breadth of knowledge when it comes to an introduction to Ghanaian cooking. Although the cookbook is not completely different it has a lot of information on what Ghanaian cooking is, regional difference as well as some veg-friendly recipe. Zoe also sells spice mixes which I will link below

Ottolenghi Flavor: A Cookbook

Ottolenghi Flavour is a cookbook I reach to whenever I am in a cooking slump. It is full of unique recipes that highlight plant-based ingredients. If you are looking to become a better cook I will 100% recommend this cookbook.

High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America

This book has been so instrumental in better understanding the link in cooking culture within the African diaspora. As an African immigrant, I have been looking to learn more about the connection of my cultural food with that in the diaspora and Jessica Harris does a fundamental job detailing how Africans brought to the United States against their will have shaped American cooking

Spices and Food Products

Spices

There is not a day that goes by that I do not get questions about sourcing spices, so I have rounded up some black-owned companies that are providing amazing African-inspired spices and spice blends.

Essie Spice (US only)

Essie has been making spice blends and sauces for 8 years celebrating ingredients and flavours from Ghana. All her sauces are amazing and she is hands-on in the entire process. Three of her sauces and spices are vegan friendly and her simmer sauce is the perfect base for Jollof Rice.

Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen (US) Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen (UK)

In addition to her amazing cookbook, Zoe’s company sells single-origin spices and spice blends used in Ghanaian and West African cooking. You can shop an amazing bundle on Milk Street for US customers or order straight from her website for UK customers

Flaev Spice Co (US and Canada)

Flaev is a Toronto-owned spice company that makes a variety of spice blends. They do ship to the US too and I love using their spice blends when I do not have the energy to mix my own spices. My favourite spice blends are the Nooch, Cajun, Smok’d and OG Flaev.

If you have questions about Ghanaian spices, you can check out this blog Post: Important Ghanaian spices

Food Products

Yolele (US only)

Yolélé is a black-owned company started in 2017 to highlight a uniquely West African ingredient called Fonio. Through their product, they work directly with farmers and artisans in Western Africa to provide economic opportunities for small farm holders and businesses. You can check out their line of fonio blends as well as an amazing gift set with woven baskets, a cookbook and products made with fonio. Yolélé will be shipping internationally shortly so keep an eye out if you are outside the US.

Addablooms (US and Canada)

Addablooms is a female and black-owned business routed in sharing ancestral West African ingredients. The founder, Abena, currently works with farmers to source all her products and curates amazing boxes that sample different indigenous ingredients from Northern Ghana. Make sure check out their ancestral food kit to sample some indigenous products.

Wabanaki Maple Products (Canada Only)

This is the only maple syrup I use. It is 100% Indigenous female-owned and located on Neqotkuk (Tobique First Nation) making maple syrup using traditions of the peoples of the Wabanaki conferederacy. Amazing quality.

Kitchen Appliances

Ghanaian earthenware: Apotoyewaa (US) Apotoyewaa (GTA)

This is a traditional Ghanaian clay mortar we use to grind a lot of our quick sauces. Originally a Southern Ghana kitchen appliance, it is an essential appliance in my kitchen we use to grind a lot of sauces and also serve as a serving bowl for communal dishes. I have included a link for African Flavour in the US but you can also purchase it in person at many African stores or Afrocan in Greater Toronto Area.

Instant Pot Duo 7-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker

This requires no introduction. I use this for my Bambara beans and to batch cook rice

T-Fal Air Fryer4.2L

This is probably my most used equipment. I use it to bake my plantains and it is done in literally 10 minutes. I also reheat a lot of my fried food in here, like my kose, or even my beyond meatballs.

KitchenAid 3.5 Cup Mini Food Processor

This incredibly cheap food processor is such a great way to chop vegetables for my salads or puree my aromatics for stew

Black & Decker Easy Touch Electric Smartgrind Coffee & Spice Grinder, Black

Here is a spice blender I use to blend all my whole spices. I usually purchase spices whole because they hold to flavour a lot longer than their powder versions

Vitamix 64-Oz. Container

Honestly, Vitamix is the best blender on the market. I use it to blend a lot of my porridge and beans.