Gambian cuisine is part of

West African cuisine West African cuisine encompasses a diverse range of foods that are split between its 16 countries. In West Africa, many families grow and raise their own food, and within each there is a division of labor. Indigenous foods consist of a number of ...

and includes the culinary practices and traditions of the nation of

The Gambia The Gambia,, ff, Gammbi, ar, غامبيا officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. It is the smallest country within mainland AfricaHoare, Ben. (2002) ''The Kingfisher A-Z Encyclopedia'', Kingfisher Publicatio ...

. Common ingredients include fish, rice,

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible Seed, seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, important to both small ...

s, tomato,

black-eyed pea The black-eyed pea or black-eyed bean is a legume grown around the world for its medium-sized, edible bean. It is a subspecies of the cowpea, an Old World plant domesticated in Africa, and is sometimes simply called a cowpea. The common commer ...

s, lemon,

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively ...

, cabbage, salt, pepper, onion, chili, and various herbs. Oysters are also a popular food from the

River Gambia The Gambia River (formerly known as the River Gambra) is a major river in West Africa, running from the Fouta Djallon plateau in north Guinea westward through Senegal and The Gambia to the Atlantic Ocean at the city of Banjul. It is navigable f ...

, and are harvested by women.Dishes
Gambian cuisine Visit Gambia

Dishes

* '' Benachin'' is a

Wolof Wolof or Wollof may refer to: * Wolof people, an ethnic group found in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania * Wolof language, a language spoken in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania * The Wolof or Jolof Empire, a medieval West African successor of the Mal ...

dish traditionally cooked in one pot (the practice giving it its name). Various ingredients including fish or meat are added, seasoned with herbs, lemon juice, basil, aubergine, parsley, onion, chili, tomato, pumpkin, carrot, cabbage,

vegetable oil Vegetable oils, or vegetable fats, are oils extracted from seeds or from other parts of fruits. Like animal fats, vegetable fats are ''mixtures'' of triglycerides. Soybean oil, grape seed oil, and cocoa butter are examples of seed oils, or fat ...

, and water, with tomato paste sometimes added for color * ''Caldo'' is a lemon-flavored steamed whole-fish dish, a variation of

yassa Yassa (alternatively: ''Yasa'', ''Yasaq'', ''Jazag'', ''Zasag'', mn, Их засаг, ''Ikh Zasag'') was the oral law code of the Mongols declared in public in Bukhara by Genghis Khan'' de facto'' law of the Mongol Empire even though the "law" ...

. '' Jorto'' or ''sompat'' are usually used * '' Domoda'', a Mandinka dish made with concentrated

paste, meat or fish seasoned with salt, medium onion, fresh tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, medium cabbage, water, tomato paste, lemon juice, soup stock, and white rice. ''Domo'' means eating and ''Da'' is the word for a stew pot * ''Mbahal'', a smoked and salted fish dish prepared with groundnuts,

locust bean The carob ( ; ''Ceratonia siliqua'') is a flowering evergreen tree or shrub in the Caesalpinioideae sub-family of the legume family, Fabaceae. It is widely cultivated for its edible fruit pods, and as an ornamental tree in gardens and lands ...

black-eyed bean The black-eyed pea or black-eyed bean is a legume grown around the world for its medium-sized, edible bean. It is a subspecies of the cowpea, an Old World plant domesticated in Africa, and is sometimes simply called a cowpea. The common co ...

s, spring onion, fresh chilies, white rice, and bitter tomato or ''jattoo'' * ''Nyambeh nyebbeh'', a cassava and bean dish made with oils, onion, chili,

soup stock Stock, sometimes called bone broth, is a savory cooking liquid that forms the basis of many dishes particularly soups, stews, and sauces. Making stock involves simmering animal bones, meat, seafood, or vegetables in water or wine, often for ...

, salt, pepper, water and fried snapper *

Peppersoup Pepper soup is a soup from parts of West Africa, notably Nigeria that is prepared using various meats, chili peppers and calabash nutmeg as primary ingredients. It is a spicy soup that has a light, watery texture. The name is a misnomer becaus ...

, a spicy fish stew and cow leg or foot stew * ''Yassa'' is a lemon whole-chicken or fish dish made with salt, pepper, onion, clove, garlic, mustard, chili sauce, lime juice, rice and water (if making it with chicken) *

Fish ball Fish balls are rounded meat balls made from fish paste which are then boiled or deep fried. Similar in composition to fishcake, fish balls are often made from fish mince or surimi, salt, and a culinary binder such as tapioca flour, corn, or ...

s made with ground ''bonga'', onion, tomato,

breadcrumb Bread crumbs or breadcrumbs (regional variants including breading and crispies) consist of crumbled bread of various dryness, sometimes with seasonings added, used for breading or crumbing foods, topping casseroles, stuffing poultry, thickeni ...

parsley Parsley, or garden parsley (''Petroselinum crispum'') is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae that is native to the central and eastern Mediterranean region (Sardinia, Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, southern Italy, Greece, Por ...

black pepper Black pepper (''Piper nigrum'') is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, known as a peppercorn, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about in diame ...

, oil, soup stock,

tomato paste Tomato paste is a thick paste made by cooking tomatoes for several hours to reduce the water content, straining out the seeds and skins, and cooking the liquid again to reduce the base to a thick, rich concentrate. It is used to impart an intens ...

, chilis and white rice *

Jollof rice Jollof (), or jollof rice, is a rice dish from West Africa. The dish is typically made with long-grain rice, tomatoes, onions, spices, vegetables and meat in a single pot, although its ingredients and preparation methods vary across different re ...

, known as ''benachin'' in the

Wolof language Wolof (; Wolofal: ) is a language of Senegal, Mauritania, and the Gambia, and the native language of the Wolof people. Like the neighbouring languages Serer and Fula, it belongs to the Senegambian branch of the Niger–Congo language family. ...

, it is made with rice, onion, tomato and red pepper and seasoned with ingredients such as

nutmeg Nutmeg is the seed or ground spice of several species of the genus ''Myristica''. ''Myristica fragrans'' (fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg) is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fruit: nutmeg, from its seed, an ...

ginger root Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is a herbaceous perennial which grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of lea ...

Scotch bonnet Scotch bonnet (also known as Bonney peppers, or Caribbean red peppers) is a variety of chili pepper named for its supposed resemblance to a Scottish tam o' shanter bonnet. It is ubiquitous in West Africa as well as the Caribbean. Like the clos ...

cumin Cumin ( or , or Article title
) (''Cuminum cyminum'') is a

chili pepper Chili peppers (also chile, chile pepper, chilli pepper, or chilli), from Nahuatl '' chīlli'' (), are varieties of the berry-fruit of plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for ...

s. It can include meat, fish and vegetables * ''

Maafe Peanut stew or groundnut stew, also called as ''maafe'' ( Wolof, ''mafé'', ''maffé'', ''maffe''), ''sauce d'arachide'' (French), ''tigadèguèna'' or ''domoda'', is a stew that is a staple food in Western Africa. It originates from the Mandinka ...

'', a peanut stew *

Oyster stew Oyster stew is a stew made with oysters. It is popular in the United States and in The Gambia. In New England cuisine, oyster stew is often associated with Thanksgiving. In Southern United States cuisine, oyster stew is often prepared on Chris ...

* '' Thiakry'', a sweet dish made from couscous (wheat or

millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets al ...

), milk (or sweetened condensed milk or yogurt), and spices; ''chakery'' is a couscous pudding

References

Ghanaian Dishes

Nigerian Dishes

West African Dishes

{{Authority control West African cuisine