One big unknown before setting off on my trip to Accra, Lomé and Porto-Novo was what the vegetarian food situation would be like in West Africa. So little is written about travel in these countries, and when I did come across recommendations for nourishment, most of the dishes contained meat. It was a happy surprise that I found plenty of vegetarian options (and even an all vegan restaurant in Porto-Novo!); I can assure you I never went hungry. In fact, the opposite was true- I couldn’t stop eating!
I’m going to give you a glimpse into some of Ghana’s best vegetarian dishes and point you in the direction of some of the restaurants/neighborhoods that I especially enjoyed giving my patronage.
Jamestown Cafe
Located right next to Ussher Fort, Jamestown Cafe has a serene outdoor dining area and some of the best food in Accra. Head chef “King John the Billionaire” (as it reads on his business card!) whips up tasty dish after tasty dish and I made many repeat visits to his establishment during my week in Accra.
Jollof Rice
Jollof rice is one of the most popular dishes across West Africa, and there are some pretty serious disputes across the regional culinary world as to where it originated. Senegal and Gambia claim that it is named after the Jolof Kingdom, that once ruled the area. Mali protests that they gave birth to the recipe and it has been culturally appropriated by others. Togo and Benin make similar arguments, but it is the rivalry between Ghana and Nigeria that has become most heated. Both nations insist that they are the true creators of jollof rice and I am not prepared to get in the middle of these squabbles. My only job was to eat the dish, and that I did.
Jollof rice is literally everywhere. You can find it on any restaurant menu and they even sell box mixes of instant jollof rice in the supermarket. Many varieties do contain meat, so as I vegetarian I had to make sure I was getting the mixed vegetable version and not a variety with beef, chicken or goat. Jollof rice is made by combing tomato paste with palm or vegetable oil, garlic, bell peppers, black pepper, chilies and onion. In Ghana, jollof is served with shito, a green or black pepper sauce. (Shito is the Ga word for “pepper.”)
Kelewele
Kelewele isn’t only fun to say (it’s pronounced Kelly-welly), but it’s a delicious starter before any meal. Kelewele is made of fried, sliced plantains that are coated in a mix of hot African spices before being served. They’re kind of the like the Ghanaian version of waffle fries. At Jamestown Cafe, Kelewele is served with a side of groundnuts (which taste just like peanuts and I believe are essentially the same thing).
Red Red
Red Red is seriously the best. I want to eat red red every day. (Well, maybe alternating every other day with my Togolese friend Igor’s fufu and Edem’s Béninois rice and vegetables, but I’ll save those for another post!) Red Red has a base of black-eyed peas that are cooked in tomato sauce with onions, peppers and spices. It’s served with a side of fried plantains and often with a hard-boiled egg on top. Not only does red red taste great, but it really fills you up. For a few bucks you can have enough energy to sustain you through a hot afternoon of sight-seeing and exploration.
Kenkey
My road trip with Richmond to Kakum National Park, Elmina and Cape Coast was filled with pits stops for food along the way. Little stands line the highway between Accra and Cape Coast selling produce and cubes of Kenkey. There are many variations of kenkey, but the two common in Ghana are Ga kenkey and Fante kenkey. Kenkey is a dumpling made of corn pâté that is allowed to ferment for several days before being wrapped in either banana leaves or corn husks. (Pictured above is Fante kenkey wrapped in banana leaves.) Kenkey is normally served with a tomato or pepper sauce, but can be eaten right out of the leaf if you’re really hungry and can’t wait to get home.
Bofrot
Bofrot is Ghana’s answer to doughnuts- balls of fried bread that are sold in the mornings to motorists on their way to work. When traffic comes to a halt in Accra, women carrying boxes of bofrot on their heads walk in between the cars and sell the delightful treat to passengers during their morning commutes. Richmond and I departed Accra around 6:00 to get to Kakum as early as possible and picking up some bofrot was a requirement before we left. I’m guessing that this snack is not calorie-free!
Osu
Osu is Accra’s hippest neighborhood, full of bars, restaurants, nightclubs and boutiques that line the main drag, Oxford Street. Pop into any of the charming cafes and even if there aren’t many vegetarian options on the menu, most places will gladly create something for you on the spot. Throw some vegetables together with a secret sauce, add a side a fries and presto, you have a made to order speciality lunch plate! If you have a hankering for Chinese, Thai, Pizza, Indian or anything other than Ghanaian cuisine, Osu has all your international options covered.
Dinner at Agoo Hostel
I stayed at Agoo Hostel for one week and it is one of my favorite hostels in the whole world. Top tier staff, accommodations and free breakfasts were all perks, but the family style dinners (at an extra cost) were always a welcome options to sample local cuisine. This was the buffet on a Thursday night at Agoo, every dish better than the last. Hostels can be great place to expose yourself to traditional foods without breaking the bank.
Coffee, Malta & Shakes
If you’re looking for a java-based pick-me-up in the morning, head over to Second Cup in Osu, a hip cafe with a huge menu of coffee-based drinks and super fast WiFi. My favorite thing I tried was this coconut-coffee blended drink that had the right combination of caffeine and sugar to perk you up and get you through the day.
Malta is an acquired taste. It’s kind of like beer for kids? Made by Guinness, but completely non-alcoholic, this carbonated beverage is popular amongst young people in Ghana. It’s brewed from barley, hops and water, just like beer, but is thicker and has some caramel added for color and sweetness. I’m not a big fan of soda anyway, so Malta didn’t really do it for me, but if you’re in Ghana you should at least try it once. I can see why kids might like it, but I would rather simply order a beer.
Before traveling to West Africa I read all the warnings against drinking tap water and the advice to only drink bottled water. This rule supposedly extended to any fresh fruit or fruit juices as well. (Note: Eating or drinking these things won’t kill you, but you will probably experience food poisoning type symptoms for several days until your body adjusts to the different make up of the fruit.)
I heeded the advice about only drinking bottled water, but nothing was going to stop me from sampling the fresh fruit in Accra. Perhaps I have a stomach of steel, but I never had a problem eating the fruit from a market or partaking in the tantalizing fruit smoothies served at restaurants and sidewalk stalls all over the city. The coconut smoothies at Jamestown Cafe were especially amazing!
So there you have it. Some must-try vegetarian-friendly Ghanaian dishes and where you can find them in Accra. When I first started traveling, I really viewed my vegetarianism as a hinderance and a barrier that would keep me from having a more authentic culinary experience in each capital I visited. I’ve moved past that and realize that being a vegetarian simply puts my experience through a different lens, but it in no way makes it less authentic.
