Traditional food of Sierra Leone: 12 dishes to know

Sierra Leonean food is built on rice, eaten at almost every meal, topped with stews of pounded leaves, groundnut paste or okra cooked in red palm oil with smoked fish and meat. Cassava, plantain and black-eyed beans complete the plate. The most emblematic dishes are cassava leaves, groundnut soup, jollof rice and plasas, with ginger beer to drink.

Updated 2026-10-124 min read

What Sierra Leonean food is built on

Rice is the base of everything. It is the country's most important crop, grown by most farmers in the rainy season, and it is served at virtually every meal; many Sierra Leoneans consider that a meal without rice is not a meal. On top of it go the "toppings": stews of potato leaves, cassava leaves or krain krain (jute leaves), okra soup, fried fish or groundnut stew.

Cassava is the second staple: the root is pounded into foofoo or made into garri, and the leaves become the stew often called the national dish. Red palm oil and groundnuts (peanuts) give most sauces their colour and body, and smoked fish their depth. Goat, chicken and beef are the usual meats, while bananas, plantains, coconut, ginger, okra and tamarind are everyday ingredients. The country has 16 ethnic groups, and every household keeps its own version of the classic dishes.

Leaf stews and soups over rice

• Cassava leaves — The tenderest leaves of the cassava plant, pounded very finely in a mortar, then cooked down in red palm oil with onion, pepper, meat and smoked fish until the oil rises to the surface. The national tourism board calls it the national dish and a staple in almost every household. It is ladled over white rice, or eaten with foofoo.
• Plasas — A stew of leafy greens, such as potato leaves, spinach or krain krain (jute leaves), cooked with palm oil, groundnut paste and meat or fish. It is eaten with rice or foofoo, and in Freetown it is one of the dishes sold at kukry, the informal street food stalls.
• Groundnut soup — Also called groundnut stew: ground peanuts with tomato, onion and spices, usually with chicken, beef or fish, simmered until the peanut oil comes to the top. It is served with rice, foofoo or boiled plantain. The tourism board, which publishes its own recipe, says it goes very well alongside cassava leaves.
• Pepper soup — A hot broth of meat or fish with local spices and plenty of chilli. It is cooked for special occasions and is the usual remedy for a cold.

Rice dishes and starches

• Jollof rice — Rice cooked in a tomato and pepper base with meat or fish, the celebration dish of West Africa, and Sierra Leone is one of the countries that claim to make the best one. The local version often uses tomato paste rather than red palm oil, and it is a favourite at parties, often with fried plantain.
• Foofoo — Fermented cassava, or sometimes yam, pounded into a smooth, stretchy dough. It is eaten by hand: a small piece is pinched off and used to scoop up groundnut soup, cassava leaves or krain krain.
• Agidi — A soft pudding of fermented cornmeal with a mild taste, served beside spicy soups and stews or eaten on its own as a light snack.

Street food

Street vendors also sell roasted corn, roasted or boiled groundnuts, fried cassava with pepper sauce, fried potatoes, popcorn, and skewers of grilled meat or shrimp, alongside fresh mangoes, oranges and pineapple.

• Fry fry — Not one dish but the name for the fried snacks sold at market stalls and on busy streets: akara, puff-puff (sweet fried dough balls) and fried plantain. In Sierra Leone, akara is made from rice flour, mashed banana and sugar, dropped into hot oil by hand, and it is prepared for weddings, funerals, parties and the celebration of a birth.
• Binch akara — Fritters of black-eyed beans, called binch in Krio. The beans are skinned, blended with onion and pepper, beaten, then fried by the spoonful until golden. Small ones are served on toothpicks.
• Roast fish — Fish marinated with lime, ginger and spices, then grilled over an open flame; it is a beachside favourite. It comes with rice, salad and fried plantain.

Sweets and drinks

Ginger beer is usually homemade and non-alcoholic: pure ginger sweetened with sugar, sometimes with cloves or lime juice. Poyo is palm wine, sweet and lightly fermented, and Star is the local beer.

• Foorah — Also spelled furah: sweetened dumplings of rice flour, steamed until soft. It is traditionally prepared for the ceremonies held to honour the dead 40 days after their passing.
• Coconut cake — Grated coconut cooked with sugar and a little nutmeg, a sweet made for gatherings and celebrations.

Cook Sierra Leonean food at home

Cassava leaves is the dish most often called the national dish of Sierra Leone. Copper has full recipes for cassava leaves, groundnut soup and jollof rice, with ingredients and step-by-step methods, on our page about the food of Sierra Leone. The leaf stews are shared with the rest of the coast, as our guide to West African food shows.

Across the border, the same leaves become palava sauce and gbassajama: compare with the traditional food of Liberia.

The recipes

• Cassava leaves🇸🇱 Sierra Leone · 2 hours and 35 minutes
• Groundnut soup🇸🇱 Sierra Leone · 1 hour and 25 minutes
• Jollof rice🇸🇱 Sierra Leone · 2 hours and 10 minutes

Questions people ask

Keep reading

• What is the national dish of Sierra Leone?
• Traditional food of Benin: 13 dishes to know
• Traditional food of Burkina Faso: 11 dishes to know
• Traditional food of Cabo Verde: 13 dishes to know
• Traditional food of Côte d'Ivoire: 12 dishes to know
• Traditional food of The Gambia: 13 dishes to know

Sources

1. Sierra Leonean cuisine — Wikipedia
2. Savouring Sierra Leone: Traditional Dishes Every Traveler Must Try — Sierra Leone National Tourist Board
3. A gourmet revival of Sierra Leone's bold flavours — BBC Travel
4. Sierra Leone — Wikipedia
5. Sierra Leonean Recipes — The Sierra Leone Web
6. Akara — Wikipedia

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