A FOOD TRADITION

Mende cuisine

Mende cuisine is a southern Sierra Leonean food tradition associated principally with Mende communities, while also sharing ingredients and preparations with Liberia and neighboring parts of West Africa. Rice is the principal staple, accompanied by cassava, sweet potatoes, greens, okra, palm oil, peppers, fish, and groundnuts. Cooking often involves pounding or grinding ingredients, making thick leaf or nut-based stews, and simmering vegetables, fish, or meat before serving them with rice or cassava preparations. Cassava-leaf stew, potato-leaf stew, and groundnut stew are representative examples. The tradition is communal and seasonal, with local variation in greens, seafood, and spice levels.

Catalogue preview Cuisine connections may be unreviewed. Regional comparisons include their food references and do not establish the ingredients of a particular meal.