Suggested Menus for African Dinners

The multi-course (appetizer, soup, main course, dessert, . . . ) meal common in American and Europe (and Asia?) is not the traditional way to eat in sub-Saharan Africa, where the most common meal is a soup or stew or sauce served over a starchy Fufu-like staple or something similar.

There are plenty of African main-course dishes, so to present a Western-style African dinner all that needs to be done is adapt snacks to serve as an appetizers and desserts (see Dessert in Africa). One of the lighter soups (made without the optional ingredients to keep it simpler) can be the soup course. A meatless vegetable dish (which would most likely be the main course in Africa) can be a side dish. Water, beer, or soft-drinks can accompany any African meal.

Here are a few suggested menus for African dinners:

A Central African dinner

Fried Plantains for an appetizer
Congo Chicken (and peanut) soup: Muamba Nsusu
Fish for a main course: Capitaine & Pili-Pili in Palm Oil or Liboké de Poisson
Or if you prefer a meat main course: Moambé Stew
Vegetable: Mfumbwa
and of course, Baton de Manioc (Chikwangue) or a similar Fufu-like starch

A West African dinner

Akara or Moyin-Moyin for appetizers
Egusi Soup
Main course: Poisson Yassa or Mafé with Rice
Beans and Rice
Ginger Beer or Jus de Bissap
Dessert: Fruit Fritters or Caakiri

A Swahili dinner

Appetizer: Mandazi
Mchuzi wa Samaki
Wali wa Nazi
Sweet beans, Maharagwe
Cardamom Tea
After dinner treat: Kashata

A Kenyan dinner

Straight to the main courses: Nyama Choma and Sukuma Wiki
with the Kenyan staple Ugali
Side dish: Githeri or Irio
To drink: Chai

Gastronomic accuracy demands the admission that, for the most part, these suggested menus do not replicate an "average African meal" -- rather, they provide a "sampler" of dishes from a certain place or people.

Also see the pan-African menu for a Kwanzaa Karamu for Kwanzaa & Black History Month.

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Congo Cookbook recipes using Chicken

Also see: Recipes by Ingredient

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