Sierra Leonean Cuisine: Groundnut Soup, Plasas & Freetown Food
Sierra Leonean food is among West Africa's most flavourful — groundnut soup with chicken, cassava leaf plasas, and the Krio tradition of pepper soup at every social occasion
- 1
Peanut Soup Restaurant
Sierra Leone's most beloved dish — chicken simmered in a rich peanut butter broth with tomato, pepper and garden egg, eaten with white rice or fufu
- 2
Cassava Leaf Plasas
Ground cassava leaves cooked in palm oil with fish and meat — the everyday green stew found on every Sierra Leone family table, similar to but different from the Liberian version
- 3
Pepper Soup Social Ritual
Pepper soup - a thin, fiery broth with goat or fish - is the dish that Sierra Leoneans eat to welcome guests, celebrate births and celebrate the new year; its spice level is non-negotiable
- 4
Akara Bean Fritters Breakfast
Deep-fried black-eyed pea breads sold from roadside stands at dawn — eaten with pepper sauce or peanut paste as standard breakfast for Freetown's working class
- 5
Freetown Lebanese Food Quarter
A Lebanese community arrived in Sierra Leone in the early 1900s and now dominates the supermarket trade — their shawarma restaurants are Freetown's most popular lunch spots
- 6
Palm wine from the tree
Fresh palm wine tapped from oil palms in the hills above Freetown is downed every morning — something sweet and milky when fresh, fermenting into a sour drink in the evening