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.

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.

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

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!

This is my take on Senegalese chicken yassa, a rich, lemony, spicy, onion-centric dish traditionally served over rice. I've pulled way back on the peanut oil, which can make some versions of yassa too rich for my taste. In place of the oil, I built a relish around naturally rich avocados, and paired it with black-eyed peas dressed, with the advantages of a little acidity in mind, with a tangy vinaigrette.

Groundnut (peanut) stew is savory, sweet, and rich. Its origins are in West Africa, where it remains a staple, but you see it in the Caribbean and even occasionally in the American South too. Traditionally made with raw African groundnuts,which are smaller than American peanuts, it is commonly made with peanut butter now. For a true West African experience, serve this with Foo Foo (page 473).

Foo foo, a staple in West Africa, is unlike any other starchy dish I’ve ever eaten. Traditionally, boiled plantains (or yucca) are pounded in large wooden mortars until they break down into a springy mash with a sticky, stretchy texture. Pieces are then pulled off by hand (you can use a spoon) and then dipped into a sauce, soup, or stew. I like to pull off pieces before serving and drop into Groundnut Stew (page 296).

The area in Harlem where I live is known as Little West Africa because of the huge concentration of immigrants from Senegal, Mali, and Nigeria who keep their heritage alive in the neighborhood's shops and restaurants. At the heart of this vibrant community is Les Embassades, our local bakery and café, where my neighbors gather to eat, visit, and hang out. The café is owned by my friend Abe and his wife, who came to America from Senegal in the 1980s. Abe is truly living the American dream: Not only does he own his own successful business, he helps newcomers find a place where they can feel at home in a strange new country. This Senegalese-style stew is inspired by the many meals I've had at Les Embassades and features the typical flavors of West Africa—yams, peanuts, coconut milk, and morning glory, a green vegetable also known as water spinach or swamp cabbage.