Ugandan cuisine

Ugali (top) and cabbage. It is more typically eaten with kale (Sukuma wiki)

Roast chicken

Location of Uganda

Ugandan cuisine consists of traditional and modern cooking styles, practices, foods and dishes in Uganda, with English, Arab, Asian and especially Indian influences.^{[citation needed]} Like the cuisines of most countries, it varies in complexity, from the most basic, a starchy filler with a sauce of beans or meat, to several-course meals served in upper-class homes and high-end restaurants.^{[citation needed]} Most tribes in Uganda have their own speciality dish or delicacy.^[1] Many dishes include various vegetables, potatoes, yams, bananas and other tropical fruits.^[1] Chicken, fish^[2] (usually fresh, but there is also a dried variety,^[1] reconstituted for stewing), beef, goat^[2] and mutton are all commonly eaten, although among the rural poor meats are consumed less than in other areas. Nyama is the Swahili word for "meat."^{[citation needed]}

Main dishes

Main dishes are usually centered on a sauce or stew of groundnuts, beans or meat. The starch traditionally comes from ugali (maize meal) or matoke (boiled and mashed green banana), in the South, or an ugali^[2] made from millet in the North. Ugali is cooked up into a thick porridge for breakfast. For main meals, white flour is added to the saucepan and stirred into the ugali until the consistency is firm. It is then turned out onto a serving plate and cut into individual slices (or served onto individual plates in the kitchen). Cassava, yam^[2] and African sweet potato are also eaten; the more affluent include white (often called "Irish") potato and rice in their diets. Soybean was promoted as a healthy food staple in the 1970s and this is also used, especially for breakfast. Chapati, an Asian flatbread, is also part of Ugandan cuisine.

Fruits and vegetables

Various leafy greens are grown in Uganda. These may be boiled in the stews, or served as side dishes in fancier homes. Amaranth (dodo), nakati, and borr are examples of regional greens. Fruits such as bananas and pineapples^[2] are plentiful and commonly consumed: cooked in foods, eaten as snacks or as a dessert.^[1]

Some traditional food names

Ugali consists of maize flour (cornmeal) cooked with water to a porridge or dough-like consistency. Pictured on the bottom-right of the plate, here its served with beef and sauce

Some traditional and historic Ugandan foods include:

• Ugali - usually from maize but also other starches, regional names include posho and kwon. Ugandan expatriates make ugali from cornmeal, masa harina or grits.

Kwon is a sort of ugali made from millet but in other regions like eastern Uganda they include cassava flour

• Groundnut - peanuts are a vital staple and groundnut sauce is probably the most commonly eaten one. They are eaten plain or mixed with smoked fish, smoked meat or mushrooms, and can also be mixed with greens such as borr.
• Sim-sim - sesame - used particularly in the north, roasted sesame paste is mixed into a stew of beans or greens and served as a side dish, sesame paste may be served as a condiment; a candy is made from roasted sesame seeds with sugar or honey.
• Matooke - Mashed plantain boiled or cooked in a sauce of peanuts, fresh fish, and/or meat^[1]
• Luwombo - A traditional dish from Buganda, in which stew of either chicken, beef, mushrooms or fish is steamed in banana leaves
• Malewa - A traditional dish from eastern Uganda (Bugisu), made from bamboo shoots

Snacks

Roasted peanuts

• Roasted groundnuts (peanuts) served in a spill of paper
• Samusa (samousa, samosa) - Indian samosas are highly assimilated into the local cuisine, as have chapati and curry
• Mugati naamaggi (bread and eggs). Originally an Arab dish, it's wheat dough spread into a thin pancake, filled with minced meat and raw egg, and then folded into a neat parcel and fried on a skillet or hotplate.
• Nsenene is an unusual food item: a seasonal delicacy of a type of grasshopper ^[2]
• Nswaa served similarly to nsenene but made of white ant, a termite ^[2]

Desserts

Fresh fruits are a common dessert, and sesame-honey candies are also eaten.^[2] Europeans introduced cake, which is popular.^{[citation needed]}

Additional Ugandan foods

• 

  Nakati, Ethiopian eggplant

• 

  Porridge oats before cooking

Beverages

Tea (chai) and coffee (kawa) are popular beverages and important cash crops. These can be served English-style or spiced (chai masala). Coca-cola, Pepsi and Fanta all made inroads in the Ugandan market and soda became very popular. Both traditional and Western beers are probably the most widely available alcoholic beverage across Uganda. Pombe and lubisi are generic words for locally made fermented beer, usually from banana or millet. Fermented banana wine^[2] is also prepared and consumed. Tonto is a traditional fermented drink made from bananas. Waragi is the generic term for distilled spirits and these also vary, see for example Uganda Waragi a brand name for clear or yellow gin.

• Ugandan alcoholic beverages
• 

  Ugandan Waragi

• 

  Bottles of lubisi, what banana beer is referred to in Uganda

See also

	Uganda portal
	Food portal

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} "Ugandan Cuisine." Wikia Recipes. Accessed May 2011.
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} "Uganda." Foodspring.com. Accessed June 2011.

Further Reading

• Otiso, Kefa M. (2006.) "Culture and customs of Uganda." Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313331480

External links

• Ugandan cuisine: Food for the soul, Daily Monitor, October 9, 2008