3 dishes people actually cook in Benin: what they are, how long they take, and what you need to buy.
What can you cook from Benin? 3 traditional Benin dishes, from Pâte (30 min, the quickest) to Akara (170 min, the longest). Each recipe is written step by step with full ingredient lists, free to read.
Benin on the map. Drag to spin the planet.
Bean fritters whose lightness comes from two hand gestures: skinning the black-eyed peas and whipping air into the batter before frying in red palm oil.
Boiled yam pounded in a wooden mortar until the paste stretches without breaking, the igname pilee eaten with the fingers all over Benin.
Benin's everyday staple is nothing but corn flour and water, turned hard against the pot until it pulls away in one smooth mass.
Copper documents three dishes from Benin: Akara, Fufu and Pâte. Two of the three are fried. Not one needs an oven — they cook entirely on the hob. Between them they use 9 different ingredients.
The three recipes need 9 ingredients between them. Copper's atlas covers 586 dishes from 198 countries, and these three are the Benin entries. Every ingredient list on this page is complete, with quantities, and free to read.
Pâte is the quickest at 30 minutes. Akara is the longest at 170 minutes, most of it unattended. The median is 55 minutes — a weekend dish rather than a weeknight one.
Pâte is rated easy — start there. The full method is on its recipe page, step by step, free to read.
Benin is part of West African.
Countries close to Benin on the globe — and close on the plate.
COPPER