West African

Peanut butter lends its nutty, creamy texture to this hearty one-pot chicken and greens dish with an irresistible sauce you’ll want to serve over plenty of rice.

This creamy Senegalese rice and lamb dish combines peanuts, okra, and black-eyed peas to build beautiful West African flavors in a comforting one-pot meal.

Gumbo! Sinigang! Risotto!

Benne on Eagle chef Ashleigh Shanti’s brilliant blend of African and Appalachian foodways makes for hearty, unexpected twists on your favorite lazy morning classics.

My cold-weather preparedness plan: Making this obe ata stew recipe from Egunsi Foods founder ‘Yemisi Awosan.

Obe Ata is a Nigerian sauce that incorporates floral habanero chiles and bell peppers. This recipe uses obe ata as the base for a spicy, warming chicken and sweet potato stew. 

He pulls from his West African roots for a perfect bowl.

Simileoluwa Adebajo quit her finance job to bring her jollof pasta and egusi soup to Bay Area eaters.

The combination of the perfectly roasted eggplant, creamy mafé peanut sauce, and crunchy crushed peanuts makes this the ultimate comfort side dish.

This vegan root vegetable stew with peanut sauce is perfect for entertaining.

Known as one of the mother sauces of African cuisine, mafé can be paired with chicken, fish, vegetables, rice, or pretty much whatever you want.

As the name suggests, West Africa’s most popular form of fried dough is essentially a delectable fried pillow of airy dough.

Fish and chips, when done well, is a cornerstone of British culinary success. It can be wrapped in old newspaper and eaten at the beach with a wooden fork with the same fervor and joy as a finely dined fish and chips served on white china with an expensive bottle of Chablis next to it. That comforting combination of carb and fish protein can be seen in many other cultures too. (Fish tacos, anyone?) So why wouldn’t Ghana have its own version?

Here is my super bougie restyling of an everyday Ghanaian hot chile condiment. My bet is that once you’ve made it, you’ll be shouting at your West African friends because no one told you about it before. Until now, you thought XO sauce solved everything. Until now, you thought sambal belacan was the only smoked fish dip the world needed. But now, you’ve realized: I Shito, therefore I am. This recipe is luxurious, it is decadent, it is rich and textured for lavish enjoyment. Right here is where hot pepper sauce dreams comes true.

Sweet peaches, spicy pimento cheese spread, and smoky grilled bread combine in this ultimate summer toast.

Grilling watermelon caramelizes the sweetness of the fruit, and the char gives just a hint of smoky flavor.

Nigerian peppersoup should be fiery hot with rich flavor—while the traditional spices can be hard to find in the U.S., this recipe approximates the taste with a few more readily available substitutes.

Egusi seeds—the large seeds of an African melon—are toasted and ground to thicken this popular Nirgerian stew.

Seasoned with a spice mix of ground peanuts, cayenne, and ginger, these skewers are most often served with shaved onions and sliced tomato, here a tomato-cream dipping sauce quells the fiery heat.

This is the dish that first got me into cooking. Talking about it got me my first job in a kitchen, and together with the help of friends, local restaurants, and family it’s the recipe we have worked on the most for this book, because we all know how good it should be. If I could only eat one thing in the world it would probably be my grandma’s jollof. She would regularly cook a big pot with care and patience and insist that everyone took home a small container of it. Cooking the rice and storing it for the following day or to give to friends to take away is part of a sharing culture that surrounds jollof—just remember to return the Tupperware!

A restaurant kitchen can be a virtual United Nations, with a staff made up of people from around the world. A dishwasher at Aquavit who comes from Mali told me about the typical midday meal he had growing up: peanut stew made with onion, tomatoes, and spinach served over rice. His description was the starting point for this peanutty stew, an elegant interpretation of a dish eaten throughout West Africa every day.

This dish, typical of West Africa, is traditionally accompanied by foo-foo (a porridgelike side dish made from corn, sweet potato, plantain, or cassava meal). We strongly recommend serving the stew with rice to sop up the delicious sauce.

It's believed that this stew — called mafé or maafe — originated among the Bambara people of Mali. Active time: 1 hr Start to finish: 2 1/4 hr

This rich curried soup has been served at '21' for years. Our restaurant is one of the few places in this country where you can still find it. At '21' the classic garnish is diced poached chicken; this version substitutes chutney.