Food of Ghana
Ghanaian food is built on starchy staples like fufu, banku and kenkey served with flavorful soups and stews. Tomato, onion, ginger and hot peppers form the base of most dishes, and smoked fish adds depth. Coastal kitchens favor seafood, the north leans on millet and groundnuts, and meals are often shared from a common bowl.
Fufu with light soup
Pounded cassava and plantain dough with a peppery tomato broth.
How to make Fufu with light soup- Main dishes (12)
- Breakfast (4)
- Street food (5)
- Soups (2)
- Salads (1)
- Desserts and sweets (3)
- Drinks (4)
- Fruits and produce (6)
Staples
- cassava
- plantain
- maize
- rice
- yam
- fish
- peanuts
- cocoyam
Signature flavors
- scotch bonnet
- ginger
- onion
- tomato
- dried shrimp
- grains of selim
- nutmeg
Main dishes
Spicy tomato rice served with chicken, fried plantain and salad at parties.
Key ingredients: rice, tomato, pepper, onionFull guide →Pounded cassava and plantain dough with a peppery tomato broth.
Key ingredients: cassava, plantain, tomato, goat meatFull guide →Fermented corn and cassava dough served with grilled tilapia and hot pepper sauce.
Key ingredients: corn dough, cassava dough, tilapia, pepper sauce
Fermented corn dough wrapped and steamed in corn husks, eaten with fried fish and shito.
Key ingredients: fermented corn, fish, shitoBlack-eyed pea stew in red palm oil served with fried plantain.
Key ingredients: black-eyed peas, palm oil, tomato, plantain
Soft rice balls served with groundnut or palm nut soup.
Key ingredients: rice, groundnut soupBoiled yam, plantain or cocoyam with kontomire stew or egg stew.
Key ingredients: yam, plantain, palm oil, spinachCocoyam leaf stew with palm oil, smoked fish and egg.
Key ingredients: cocoyam leaves, palm oil, smoked fishNorthern millet or corn dough served with ayoyo (jute leaf) soup.
Key ingredients: millet, ayoyo leavesCrisp yam chips served with chili and tomato dip.
Key ingredients: yam, pepper, onion, tomato
Rich peanut soup with chicken or beef, eaten with rice balls or fufu.
Key ingredients: peanuts, chicken, tomato, ginger
Thick, orange soup from pressed palm fruit with crab, fish and meat.
Key ingredients: palm fruit, fish, crab, pepperBreakfast
Rice and beans cooked with sorghum leaves, served with eggs, plantain and shito.
Key ingredients: rice, black-eyed peas, sorghum leavesFull guide →
Spicy millet porridge served with fried bean cakes.
Key ingredients: millet, ginger, cloves, peppersBread with a tomato-pepper omelet, a quick street breakfast.
Key ingredients: bread, eggs, onion, tomatoRoasted corn and groundnut porridge, often given to children.
Key ingredients: roasted corn, peanuts, sugarStreet food
Spicy fried ripe plantain cubes with ginger and chili.
Key ingredients: plantain, ginger, cayenne, clovesFull guide →
Spicy beef skewers grilled over charcoal.
Key ingredients: beef, yaji spice, onionFluffy fried dough balls sold at roadside stalls.
Key ingredients: flour, sugar, yeast, nutmegA traditional street snack of Ghana made with plantain, peanuts, enjoyed at home and from local vendors.
Key ingredients: plantain, peanuts
Flaky pastry filled with seasoned beef and potato.
Key ingredients: flour, beef, potatoFull guide →Soups
Clear, peppery tomato and ginger soup with goat meat or fish.
Key ingredients: tomato, ginger, goat meat, scotch bonnetSlippery okra soup with fish and meat, eaten with banku or fufu.
Key ingredients: okra, palm oil, smoked fishSalads
Lettuce, tomato, egg and baked beans with salad cream, served with fried rice.
Key ingredients: lettuce, tomato, egg, baked beansDesserts and sweets
Fried dough sweets rolled in sugar.
Key ingredients: flour, sugarChewy brittle of caramelized sugar and roasted peanuts.
Key ingredients: peanuts, sugarCold, sweet drink of kenkey with milk and sugar.
Key ingredients: kenkey, milk, sugarDrinks
Chilled hibiscus drink with ginger, cloves and pineapple.
Key ingredients: hibiscus, ginger, clovesFermented maize drink, tangy and slightly sweet.
Key ingredients: maize, ginger
Sweet-sour millet drink from northern Ghana.
Key ingredients: millet, gingerHot cocoa from local beans, a morning favorite.
Key ingredients: cocoa, milk, sugarFruits and produce
Sweet, juicy fruit exported fresh from Ghana.
Key ingredients: pineappleFull guide →
Roasted, fried or boiled, eaten at nearly every meal.
Key ingredients: plantain
Ghana is a major cocoa grower; the pods hold sweet pulp.
Key ingredients: cocoa pods
Mango is a well-loved fruit or crop in Ghana, eaten fresh or used in juices, snacks and home cooking.
Key ingredients: mangoFull guide →
Papaya is a well-loved fruit or crop in Ghana, eaten fresh or used in juices, snacks and home cooking.
Key ingredients: papayaFull guide →
Fresh coconut water and meat from coastal vendors.
Key ingredients: coconutFull guide →Dish guides from Ghana
More cuisines of Western Africa
- Benin
- Burkina Faso
- Cape Verde
- Gambia
- Guinea-Bissau
- Guinea
- Ivory Coast
- Liberia
- Mali
- Mauritania
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
- Senegal
- Sierra Leone
- Togo
Descriptions written by Intercontinental Chef. Dishes are listed as commonly eaten today; many are shared across neighbouring countries.
- Jollof Rice with Stew: Noahalorwu, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Fufu, A typical Ghanaian cuisine: Jeffery Agyenim-Boateng, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Kenkey and ground pepper with sardine: Mwintirew, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Omo Tuo at a Ghanaian restaurant in Colorado: Thomson200, CC0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Fufu: Londonsista, CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Palm nut soup close up 02: Nkansahrexford, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Waakye with vegetables, fish and egg with ripe plantains: daSupremo, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Porridge and bean balls: Jemima2019, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Vendeuses de bananes plantain: Romanceor, CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Trichosanthes cucumerina var. anguina compose: Aruna (top left), Leslie Seaton (bottom left), Naseer Ommer from Kerala, India (top right), 杉山龍彦 (bottom right), montage, CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- MeatPie: Jonathunder, CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Hibiscus tea: Emna Mizouni, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Lamugin: Kwameghana, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- കൈതച്ചക്ക: Suniltg at Malayalam Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Mega racimos de guineos: J & E, CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Cocoa Pods: Photo by Medicaster., Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
- Mangos - single and halved: Ivar Leidus, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Carica papaya - Köhler–s Medizinal-Pflanzen-029: Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen, Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
- Cocos nucifera - Köhler–s Medizinal-Pflanzen-187: Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen, Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
