COPPERWhat is the national dish of Zambia?
Zambia has no officially declared national dish, but nshima is the one cited everywhere. It is a stiff porridge of white maize meal, cooked first as a thin porridge, then beaten thick with more meal until a wooden stick stands in it. It is eaten by hand at lunch and dinner with a relish of greens, groundnuts, beans, fish or meat.
Is nshima officially Zambia's national dish?
No law or government decree names a Zambian national dish. Nshima is the dish the sources agree on: Wikipedia's list of national dishes gives nshima for Zambia, and its article on Zambian cuisine calls maize the country's staple food and nshima "the main component of Zambian meals". Zambian food writers describe it the same way, as the staple food of the country.
Nshima also unites a country of more than 72 ethnic groups across 10 provinces: recipes and relishes vary by region, but the staple stays the same. Malawi shares it under the name nsima, and the same food is called ugali in East Africa and sadza in Zimbabwe.
What is nshima made of?
Only two ingredients: white maize meal, known in Zambia as mealie meal, and water. No salt goes in. Nshima is deliberately plain, because its job is to carry the relish. In traditional communities the work starts long before the pot: the maize is dried, the kernels sorted and pounded, and only then cooked.
How nshima is made
Zambian nshima is cooked in two stages. First, about 150 g of maize meal is mixed with cold water into a slurry and stirred into boiling water, then cooked 10 to 15 minutes into a smooth, thin porridge that bubbles slowly.
Then comes the paddling. The rest of the meal, around 450 g, goes in a handful at a time, and each addition is pressed and folded against the side of the pot with a flat wooden stick called an umwiko. After 3 to 5 minutes of hard work over low heat, the nshima is dense, smooth and pulls away from the pot. It rests covered for 3 minutes, then is shaped into smooth mounds with a wooden spoon dipped in water. Our nshima recipe has every step.
How to eat nshima
Nshima is eaten with the hands, preferably the right one, after everyone has washed. You take a small lump into your palm, roll it into a ball and dip it into the relish. Experienced eaters press a dent into the ball with the thumb so it scoops up more sauce. In Bemba, the sauce of a relish is called umuto, and scooping a generous amount of it with nshima is called inkondwa.
The relish, called ndiwo in Nyanja and umunani in Bemba, is what changes from meal to meal:
- Ifisashi: greens cooked in a sauce of pounded groundnuts.
- Chibwabwa: pumpkin leaves, one of the simplest relishes.
- Kapenta: small dried or fresh fish from the lakes.
- Beans, beef, chicken or game: the protein relishes.
- Wild mushrooms: such as tente and chitondo, in season.
Where nshima comes from
Maize is an American crop, and its use for nshima in Zambia spread during the second half of the 20th century. Before that, the Bemba of northern Zambia ate ubwali, a thick porridge of millet, with almost every meal, paired with a relish called umunani of meat, fish, insects or vegetables. Nshima kept the structure of that meal and swapped the grain.
Other dishes to know from Zambia
Ifisashi, visashi in Chinyanja, is the everyday relish for nshima: pumpkin leaves, sweet potato leaves or spinach simmered 20 to 30 minutes with tomato and onion in a sauce of raw groundnuts ground to a powder, until it is thick and clings to the leaves.
Chikanda, nicknamed African polony, contains no meat at all. It is made from the dried, pounded tubers of wild orchids, mostly of the Disa, Habenaria and Satyrium genera, boiled with groundnuts, soda, salt and chili until it sets into a firm loaf that is cut into slices. It is traditionally associated with the Bemba, who serve it at weddings, and heavy demand has put pressure on the wild orchids.
Compare nshima with its neighbours in the national dish of Malawi and the national dish of Zimbabwe. All three Zambian dishes are on our page about the food of Zambia, and the region is covered in our guide to Southern African food.
The recipes
Ifisashi
ChikandaQuestions people ask
Is nshima the same as ugali?
Yes, it is the same kind of stiff maize porridge. It is called nshima in Zambia, nsima in Malawi, ugali in East Africa and sadza in Zimbabwe.
Does Zambia have an official national dish?
No law or decree names one, but nshima is the dish universally cited as Zambia's national dish and staple food.
What is eaten with nshima?
Nshima is always eaten with a relish: greens such as ifisashi or pumpkin leaves, beans, kapenta fish, chicken, beef or wild mushrooms.
How do you eat nshima?
With the right hand: roll a small lump into a ball, press a dent into it with the thumb and use it to scoop up the relish.
When do Zambians eat nshima?
Nshima is eaten at lunch and at dinner, at home, at food stalls and in restaurants.
Keep reading
- Traditional food of Zambia: 13 dishes to know
- What is the national dish of Angola?
- What is the national dish of Botswana?
- What is the national dish of Eswatini?
- What is the national dish of Lesotho?
- What is the national dish of Malawi?