COPPERWhat is the national dish of Uganda?
Uganda has no official national dish, but the one Ugandans name is matooke: green East African Highland bananas, peeled, wrapped in banana leaves and steamed for hours until they turn soft and yellow, then mashed inside the leaves. It is served with groundnut sauce, beans or meat stew, and the word matooke is used in Uganda to mean food itself.
What is matooke?
Matooke, also spelled matoke, is two things at once: a group of starchy green bananas and the dish made from them. The bananas are East African Highland bananas, a group of cooking cultivars that are not plantains and are not eaten sweet. They are found nowhere else in the world and have evolved locally in the African Great Lakes for more than a thousand years, after reaching Africa from Southeast Asia sometime between the first and sixth centuries AD.
The dish is the bananas peeled while green, steamed and mashed into a smooth, mild yellow mass. In Buganda, the central region, it is called amatooke; in south-western Uganda, ekitookye. Raw, the peeled flesh is white and fairly hard; cooking is what turns it soft and yellow.
Not every highland banana ends up on the plate. Ugandan growers sort the cultivars into clone sets, and one set, called mbidde, meaning "beer", is kept for making juice and banana beer rather than matooke.
Why matooke is Uganda's national dish
No law makes it official. Matooke holds the title because of how much of it Uganda eats. Uganda has the highest per capita banana consumption in the world, about 0.7 kg per person per day according to figures cited on Wikipedia. The local name has become a synonym for the word "food".
When CNN asked readers in 2015 to name their country's national dish, Ugandans agreed on matooke, and it is the dish given for Uganda on Wikipedia's list of national dishes. In the central region the main starch is matooke or posho (maize meal); in the north, east and west it is more often kalo, a stiff millet dough, but matooke is the dish that stands for the country.
How matooke is made
The traditional method takes time, not skill. Our matooke recipe follows it step by step:
- Peel: about 2 kg of green bananas are peeled with an oiled knife and oiled hands, taking off only the thin skin, and dropped into cold water so they do not darken.
- Wrap: banana leaves are softened over a flame, layered in a bowl, and the bananas are folded inside into a closed bundle.
- Steam: the bundle sits on the leaf ribs or banana stalks above about a litre of water, covered, for 1 h 30 to 2 h. Hot water is added whenever the pot runs low.
- Mash: once the bananas have turned from white to yellow, the bundle is kneaded through a cloth, still closed, until the inside is smooth.
- Serve: the bundle is opened at the table, often on a fresh banana leaf.
What is served with matooke?
Matooke is a starch, so it always comes with a sauce. The most common is groundnut sauce, made from ground peanuts, a vital staple in Ugandan cooking. Beans, fresh fish, goat or beef stew are the other usual partners.
The grandest partner is luwombo, a traditional dish from Buganda. Chicken in groundnut sauce is sealed in banana leaves smoked over a flame, then steamed for 1 h 30 to 2 h so the parcel is opened at the table. One Ugandan reader quoted by CNN named exactly that pairing, matooke with luwombo, as the food that best represents the country.
Matooke also goes into katogo, a breakfast dish where peeled bananas are cooked with peanuts, beef, offal or goat meat in one pot.
Around Lake Victoria, the same bananas are eaten in Kenya, and in Tanzania they are a staple in the west and the Kilimanjaro region, but nowhere do they sit as close to the centre of the plate as in Uganda.
Other dishes to know from Uganda
The rolex is Uganda's street breakfast, and its name is a slur of "rolled eggs". Two eggs are beaten with raw onion, tomato, cabbage and green pepper and poured into a thin round on a flat pan. As soon as the underside sets, a warm chapati is pressed on top, the whole thing is flipped, rolled up tight and eaten from a paper wrap.
The same cooking bananas are a staple across the region: in Rwanda and Burundi they are called igitoki. See how the neighbours compare in our articles on the national dish of Tanzania and the national dish of Rwanda.
You will find all three dishes, with ingredients and step-by-step methods, on our page about the food of Uganda, and the wider picture in our guide to East African food.
The recipes
- Matoke🇺🇬 Uganda · 2 hours and 30 minutes
Luwombo🇺🇬 Uganda · 2 hours and 45 minutes
Rolex🇺🇬 Uganda · 15 minutes
Questions people ask
Is matooke a banana or a plantain?
It is a banana. Matooke comes from East African Highland bananas, a group of starchy cooking bananas distinct from plantains, picked and cooked while green.
Is matooke eaten outside Uganda?
Yes. East African Highland bananas are a staple around Lake Victoria in Kenya, in western Tanzania and the Kilimanjaro region, and in Rwanda and Burundi, where they are called igitoki.
What is served with matooke?
Groundnut (peanut) sauce is the classic partner, along with beans, fish, beef or goat stew, and luwombo on special occasions.
Does Uganda have an official national dish?
No. Matooke is not official by law, but Ugandans consistently name it, and the word is used locally to mean food.
Why is a Ugandan street food called a rolex?
The name is a slur of "rolled eggs": an omelette cooked onto a chapati and rolled up by hand.
Keep reading
- Traditional food of Uganda: 12 dishes to know
- What is the national dish of Burundi?
- What is the national dish of Comoros?
- What is the national dish of Djibouti?
- What is the national dish of Eritrea?
- What is the national dish of Ethiopia?