Gambian Recipes

Gambian cooking belongs to the Senegambian table, built on rice, fish, peanuts and onions. The river and the Atlantic supply fresh and smoked fish, and groundnuts (peanuts) are the country's best-known crop and the base of the national dish, domoda. Daily lunch is a shared bowl of rice with a sauce: domoda (peanut stew), benachin (one-pot rice with fish and vegetables), supakanja (okra stew with palm oil and smoked fish) or yassa (chicken or fish in a sharp onion and lemon sauce). Millet and couscous appear as chakery, a sweet yogurt dessert, and as porridges. Mornings mean bread with fried fish, beans or egg. Wonjo (hibiscus) and baobab juices cool the day, and attaya, strong sweet green tea poured in three rounds, accompanies long conversations. Festive days and naming ceremonies call for big pots of benachin and fried dough.

Staple ingredients

• rice
• peanuts (groundnuts)
• fish (fresh and smoked)
• onions
• palm oil
• okra
• millet
• lemon and hot pepper

• Main Dishes 5
• Drinks 1

Main Dishes

• Benachin (Gambian One-Pot Rice with Fish and Vegetables)GM2 h 5 minMedium
• Domoda (Gambian Peanut Stew with Beef)GM2 h 20 minEasy
• Yassa (Gambian Chicken in Lemon and Onion Sauce)GM1 h 55 minEasy
• Nyambeh Nyebbeh (Gambian Black-Eyed Peas and Cassava with Fried Fish)GM1 h 30 minEasy
• Supakanja (Gambian Okra Stew with Palm Oil and Smoked Fish)GM1 h 55 minEasy

Drinks

• Wonjo (Gambian Hibiscus Drink)GM25 minEasy