Sierra Leonean Recipes

Sierra Leonean cooking is rice cooking: a meal without rice is hardly counted as a meal. It is eaten with palm oil stews of leaves, most famously cassava leaves and potato leaves, cooked down with smoked or fresh fish, beef and hot pepper. Groundnut (peanut) soup, okra soup and pepper soup round out the everyday table, while jollof rice is cooked for parties. Krio cooking, from Freetown, adds fried fish, plantains and snacks sold as fry fry, such as akara bean fritters. Cassava is eaten as fufu and as garri, and sweets lean on coconut, ginger and sesame. Pepper is added with a free hand, though cooks often hold back for guests. Homemade ginger beer is the drink of celebrations, and palm wine is tapped fresh in the villages. Big family pots of leaves, rice and fish are shared at weddings, naming ceremonies and Eid or Christmas gatherings.

Staple ingredients

• rice
• palm oil
• cassava and its leaves
• sweet potato leaves
• peanuts (groundnuts)
• smoked and dried fish
• hot peppers
• plantains

• Soups 1
• Main Dishes 3
• Side Dishes 1
• Desserts 1
• Snacks 2

Soups

• Groundnut Soup (Sierra Leonean Peanut Soup with Chicken)SL1 h 30 minEasy

Main Dishes

• Jollof Rice (Sierra Leonean Party Jollof with Chicken)SL1 h 55 minMedium
• Cassava Leaves (Sierra Leonean Cassava Leaf Stew with Rice)SL2 h 30 minMedium
• Plasas (Sierra Leonean Potato Leaf Stew)SL1 h 35 minEasy

Side Dishes

• Fried Plantain (Sierra Leonean Fry Fry Plantain)SL25 minEasy

Desserts

• Coconut Cake (Sierra Leonean Coconut Candy Squares)SL40 minMedium

Snacks

• Akara (Sierra Leonean Black-Eyed Pea Fritters)SL55 minMedium
• Kanya (Sierra Leonean Peanut and Rice Candy)SL30 minEasy