Ghanaian cuisine is renowned for its delightful spices and fulfilling staples. But Ghanaian cuisine is more than just a source of nourishment: it’s a means of expressing joy and affection, as well as a means of bringing people closer. Ghanaian cuisine is good for the heart as well as the stomach.

It is just too simple to mix up the cultures and delicacies of African nations. But let’s be clear: each country has unique ingredients, cooking methods, and taste preferences. Ghana isn’t an exception.

Learn about Ghanaian traditional dishes to expand your culinary knowledge, and discover why the cuisine is so significant in Ghanaian culture.

Chicha

Chicha is indeed a traditional Ghanaian cuisine consisting of grilled meat and skewered rubbed with suya, a spice blend. Peanut butter, spice mixes, and spicy chili peppers are used to make suya. The dish’s name is a direct translation of the Ghanaian phrase kyinkyinga, which means kebab in English.

Chicha is usually served with Jollof grain, fried plantains, or Ghanaian salads.

Plaka

Plaka is a typical Ivorian and Ghanaian dish that has a crunchy, sticky texture. Cassava roots are steamed and pounded to make it. Owing to the fermentation of cassava before cooking, the dish may have a sour flavor. Plaka is usually served as a side dish with palm or groundnut broth. 

Kontomire soup

Kontomire soup, also known as ebunu in Ghana, is a delicious soup made with cocoyam leaves, smoky fish, snails, and mushrooms. The soup’s distinctive green color comes from cocoyam leaves. The Akan tribe serves the soup with fufu, corn, or cooked ripe plantains as a traditional dish.

Palm-nut Soup

Palm-nut bowl of soup is a filling Ghanaian soup made with the pulp of palm nut, water, meat or fish, onions, tomatoes, and seasonings like salt, pepper, chili, and garlic. The mixture of these items is baked until everything has thickened into a stew-like consistency.

Th soup is usually eaten as an accompaniment to rice or fufu dishes, but it can also be served as a starter before the main course.

Kokonte

Kokonte seems to be a stew made from pounded, dried yam or cassava, water, and salt that is common in Togo and Ghana. The color of the dish after cooking varies from medium-dark brown, based on how well the cassava was cooked. It is often referred to as “poor man’s food” because this is the cheapest perfect meal that can be prepared in Ghana.

It can be eaten with a side of gravy, soup, or ground peppers.

Egg Garden stew

Garden eggs stew is really a traditional Ghanaian dish made with African eggplant, also known as a garden egg. While eggplant is just a fruit, and is used in these stew as a vegetable, along with onions, tomatoes, spices, palm oil,  shrimp or dried fish, and spices like nutmeg and ginger.

Kelewele

Kelewele is a tasty Ghanaian dish made with high plantain pieces and seasonings like pepper, ginger, and salt. It is commonly served as a side dish to bean rice dishes or bean stews. It is also offered as just a dessert by many African street vendors.

To offer kelewele an extra layer of spice, some chefs like to include cloves, peanuts, cinnamon, or nutmeg to the mix.