Ghana’s food is as diverse as its people’s, with each ethnic group having its special dish. From coastal towns to savannah regions, the tropical country is riddled with over a thousand and one diverse delicacies.
On the other hand, some meals are well-known for their deliciousness and are enjoyed by practically all Ghanaians, even those who travel to other countries.
Ghanaian cuisine is based on nutritious grains and carbohydrates and is flavored with plenty of heat, spice, and tropical flavors. These rich foods are delicious and high in nutrients and energy, recharging you for a day of exploration and discovery.
Below are some of the most popular Ghanaian food.
1. Kontomire Soup: Kontomire soup, also known as ebunu ebunu (green green) in Ghana, is a savory soup made from cocoyam leaves, smoked fish, mushrooms, and snails.
The soup gets its distinctive green hue from cocoyam leaves. The soup is a classic Akan cuisine, frequently served with fufu, rice, or boiling ripe plantains.
2. Kokonte: Kokonte is a popular stew in Ghana that consists of pounded, dried cassava or yam, water, and salt. The meal’s colour after cooking varies from light brown to black, depending on how the cassava was dried.
On the side, it can be served with soup, gravy, or ground peppers.
3. Garden Egg Stew: Garden egg stew is a traditional Ghanaian meal made using African eggplant, also known as a garden egg. Although eggplant is a fruit, it is cooked as a vegetable in this stew, with tomatoes, onions, peppers, palm oil, dried fish or shrimp, and spices like ginger and nutmeg.
The stew and cooked plantains are frequently served for lunch or dinner.
4. Banku with Soup and Sea Food: Banku is a fermented corn dough and cassava dough mixture that is mixed and stirred in hot water until it becomes solid.
It is a popular dish in Ghana’s southern, eastern, and western regions. Banku is served with various soups, stews, and sauces, ranging from peanut butter soup to pounded palm nut soup.
However, okra stew or soup is the most popular soup that goes well with Banku. Cowskin, also known as ‘wele’ in the region, is combined with your choice of seafood.
4. Okra Soup: The soup’s name is derived from the main ingredient, okra. Depending on where you live, this soup comes in two varieties: dry okra soup and fresh okra soup.
Southerners grow fresh okra and use it, whereas Northerners grow dry okra due to dry weather. It is eaten with various foods, as we will see shortly.
5. Rice Water Porridge: Rice water porridge is another simple but nutritious breakfast option. This simple but delicious breakfast, popular in Ghana’s southern and middle belts, requires only three ingredients: water, salt, and rice.
Most people sweeten it with sugar and milk, but unlike hominy corn porridge, it can also be eaten raw.
6. Waakye: Waakye is a traditional Ghanaian dish. Waakye means “beans,” and this dish is simply rice and beans.
However, with its many accompaniments, such as boiled eggs, vegetable salads, fried plantains, waakye stew, hot pepper, and avocado, waakye has transformed into one of Ghana’s favorite foods.
Waakye is now a part of Caribbean and South American cultures due to the 17th-century trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Waakye’s ancestors can be found in Jamaican and Trinidadian cuisines that use kidney beans and coconut milk.
This dish is known as “Cook-Up Rice” in Guyana. The Brazilian version is known as “O Arroz Com Feijo,” which translates as “The Foundation.”
8: Kelewele: Kelewele is the official name for spicy Ghanaian fried plantains. This Ghanaian dish is likely one of the most universal on this list.
Kelewele is a flavorful Ghanaian dish of deep-fried plantain chunks seasoned with salt, ginger, and hot peppers. Kelewele is commonly served as an accompaniment to bean stews or rice dishes, but it is also sold as a dessert by many African street vendors.
Some cooks like to add peanuts, cloves, nutmeg, or cinnamon to the mix to add another layer of flavor to kelewele.
9: Banku: Cassava is a major crop in Ghana, accounting for most calories consumed in Western African countries. Banku is also a cassava dough product, but this meal includes corn and a brief fermentation period.
Fresh cassava soaks for a day with corn grains before becoming a smooth, wet dough. Banku only takes about two days to ferment in Ghana’s heat.
This dough is then boiled and kneaded to produce a firmer product. After that, the dough is steamed and served with stew.