Malian Recipes

Mali sits at the edge of the Sahel, and its cooking follows the river and the farm. Millet, sorghum, rice and fonio are the staple grains, cooked into stiff porridge (tô), steamed grains, pancakes or sweet puddings. Sauces do the flavoring: peanut sauce with chicken or lamb (tigadèguèna), jute leaf sauce (fakoye), and okra and baobab leaf sauces, many enriched with butter or oil and seasoned with fermented locust beans (soumbala). Fish from the Niger River, especially Nile perch, is grilled or stewed, and grilled meat (dibi) is sold at roadside stands in the evening. Breakfast might be millet porridge or fried rice cakes (maasa) with sweet tea. Lamb is the celebration meat for Tabaski and weddings. Drinks include ginger juice, hibiscus and baobab juices, and green tea brewed on charcoal and served in three rounds. Sesame, honey and peanut sweets are sold in markets.

Staple ingredients

• millet and sorghum
• rice
• fonio
• peanuts
• okra and leafy greens
• lamb and chicken
• Niger River fish
• shea butter and soumbala

• Breakfast 2
• Main Dishes 4
• Desserts 1
• Drinks 1

Breakfast

• Fondé (Malian Millet Porridge)ML25 minEasy
• Maasa (Malian Fried Rice Cakes)ML45 minMedium

Main Dishes

• Tigadèguèna (Malian Peanut Sauce with Chicken)ML1 h 40 minEasy
• Capitaine Grillé (Malian Grilled Nile Perch)ML50 minEasy
• Dibi (Malian Grilled Lamb with Onion Mustard Sauce)ML45 minEasy
• Fakoye (Malian Jute Leaf Sauce with Lamb)ML1 h 50 minMedium

Desserts

• Meni-Meniyong (Malian Sesame and Honey Brittle)ML25 minMedium

Drinks

• Gnamakoudji (Malian Ginger Juice)ML15 minEasy