Serahule (Soninke of the Gambia)

Churah Gerteh

Pounded millet porridge with groundnut paste and sour milk, eaten for breakfast and at naming ceremonies. Millet is still the Gambian countryside's real staple, whatever the rice figures say.

Serves 6 · 45 minutes

Benachin

also Jollof rice, One pot

Rice cooked in tomato with fish or meat and vegetables, whose Wolof name means one pot. The Gambia and Senegal both make a strong claim to be where jollof begins.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes

Afra

Meat grilled over charcoal in a dedicated afra shop, chopped on the board with onion and chilli and wrapped in paper with bread. Serengeti's late-night food, eaten standing up.

Serves 4 · 40 minutes, plus 2 hours marinating

Domoda

Groundnut stew with meat and pumpkin, thickened to a rich brown sauce and served over rice. Made for guests and for Friday lunch, and claimed by Gambians as the national dish before benachin.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 45 minutes

Superkanja

Okra stewed with palm oil, smoked fish and meat into a thick drawing sauce, eaten over rice. The most-eaten sauce in the Gambian countryside and the test of a cook's judgement with okra.

Serves 6 · 1 hour

Plasas

also Palaver sauce, Cassava leaf plasas

Cassava or potato leaves cooked down with palm oil, smoked fish and meat, the Gambian and Sierra Leonean green sauce, served over rice.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes

Wonjo

Hibiscus juice with ginger and vanilla, sold frozen in bags outside every school and mosque. Gambians drink it half melted, biting the corner off the bag.

Serves 8 · 30 minutes, plus chilling

Thiakry

also Chakery, Dégué

Steamed millet couscous folded into sweetened soured milk with nutmeg and vanilla. Eaten as breakfast, as dessert and at naming ceremonies, cold from a shared bowl.

Serves 6 · 45 minutes

Thieboudienne

also Ceebu jën, Fish and rice

Fish stuffed with herb paste, cooked with vegetables in tomato, and rice cooked in the resulting broth. Senegal's national dish, inscribed by UNESCO in 2021, and the origin of jollof.

Serves 8 · 2 hours

Dibi

Lamb grilled over wood in a dedicated dibiterie, chopped and served on paper with mustard onions. Ordered by the kilo and eaten with the hands, standing.

Serves 4 · 45 minutes

Fataya

also Nems senegalais, Fish pastries

Fried pastries stuffed with spiced fish or minced meat, sold from pans on every Dakar corner and eaten with a tamarind and onion sauce.

Serves Makes about 20 · 1 hour 30 minutes

Poulet Yassa

Chicken marinated in lemon, onion and mustard, then braised in a mass of the onions until they collapse into a sauce. From the Casamance, and now eaten everywhere.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes, plus overnight marinating

Mafé

Groundnut stew with beef and vegetables over rice, thick and orange with palm or groundnut oil. Eaten across the Sahel and given its best-known name in Senegal.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 45 minutes

Caldou

also Kaldu, Casamance fish and rice

Fish poached in a lemon and okra broth over rice, the Casamance dish, lighter and sharper than the thieboudienne of the north.

Serves 6 · 1 hour

Bouye

also Baobab juice, Jus de pain de singe

Baobab fruit pulp soaked and strained into a creamy, tart white drink with vanilla and nutmeg. The fruit is called monkey bread in French and is extremely high in vitamin C.

Serves 6 · 20 minutes, plus 4 hours soaking

Lakh

also Ngalakh, Millet and yoghurt

Millet couscous in soured milk with baobab fruit and peanut paste, eaten as breakfast and, in its ngalakh form, sent between Christian and Muslim neighbours at Easter.

Serves 6 · 50 minutes

Tô

also Toh

Millet or sorghum porridge cooked stiff and eaten with a leaf or okra sauce, the daily food across the Sahelian belt. Torn off in pieces and dipped with the right hand.

Serves 6 · 40 minutes

Tiguadege Na

also Maafe, Groundnut stew

Meat in a thick groundnut and tomato sauce over rice, Mali's national dish and the ancestor of groundnut stews from Senegal to Cameroon. The oil rising to the top is how you know it is done.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 45 minutes

Fakoye

A sauce of powdered sesame leaves with meat and tomato, served over rice or tô. Sold from lunch pots in Bamako, and unmistakable for its slightly slippery texture.

Serves 6 · 1 hour

Capitaine à la Bamakoise

Nile perch from the Niger, stuffed and grilled whole, served with fried plantain and a sharp onion salad. The dish Bamako restaurants put in front of a visitor.

Serves 4 · 1 hour

Widjila

Millet couscous with camel or mutton and curdled milk, from the Tuareg and Songhai north. The sour milk poured over at the end is what distinguishes it.

Serves 6 · 2 hours

Tigadèguèna Poulet

also Chicken groundnut sauce

Chicken in groundnut sauce with sweet potato and cabbage, the Bamako version of the Sahel's great sauce, served over rice.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes

Dabileni

Hibiscus juice, called dabileni in Bambara, sold from coolers and street-corner freezers across Bamako. The same drink as bissap and sobolo, with a Malian preference for very sweet.

Serves 8 · 30 minutes, plus chilling

Dèguè

also Thiakry, Millet yoghurt

Steamed millet grain in sweetened soured milk with vanilla and nutmeg, drunk cold from a plastic sachet at every Malian roadside.

Serves 6 · 45 minutes, plus chilling

Mauritanian Couscous

Barley or millet couscous with camel or mutton, coarser and less vegetable-heavy than its Maghrebi cousins. Mauritania joined the four-country UNESCO couscous listing in 2020.

Serves 6 · 2 hours

Chebujin

also Thieboudienne

Fish and rice cooked in tomato with stuffed fish and vegetables, shared with Senegal across the river. Mauritania's version leans drier and is eaten from a communal platter with the right hand.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 45 minutes

Méchoui

Whole lamb or goat roasted over embers or in a pit, cut up and eaten in the hand with salt and cumin. The desert celebration food, and the standard way of honouring a guest.

Serves 10 or more · 4 hours

Lakhchef

also Mauritanian pancake

A thin sorghum or wheat pancake cooked on one side until it is full of holes, eaten at breakfast with butter, honey or a meat sauce.

Serves Makes 10 · 40 minutes, plus overnight fermenting

Marou we Laham

Rice with meat, cooked in one pot and served on a wide communal platter. The plain name is accurate: this is the dish put out when a family has guests and wants everyone to eat well.

Serves 8 · 1 hour 45 minutes

Hakko

A Haalpulaar dish of the Senegal river valley: leaf sauce over millet couscous, thickened and soured, eaten in the villages of the south where the millet is grown.

Serves 6 · 1 hour

Zrig

Camel or goat milk thinned with water and sweetened, drunk cold across the Sahara. It is what a herder offers on arrival and the first thing given to a traveller who has come far.

Serves 4 · 10 minutes