A friend who served in the Peace Corps in Senegal once told us that she thought we'd be fascinated by the food. The thought got tucked away and somewhat forgotten until we received a copy of Yolele!, chef Pierre Thiam's cookbook devoted to this West African's country's cuisine. Wow, our friend was right! As we've discovered, Senegalese food is a rich blend of fresh, local ingredients and multicultural flavors from France, Portugal, the Middle East, the Americas, and even Vietnam.
According to Thiam, "In Senegal, cooking is a celebration ... of how we have gloriously melded the old with the new, the native with the global." This is evident in the country's flavorful soups, stews, rice dishes, salads, and fritters both savory and sweet, in which ingredients like seafood, peanuts, hot peppers, and tropical fruits and vegetables abound. Here are a few dishes we've learned about:
• 1 Mafe – A stew of chicken, fish, or lamb simmered in peanut butter sauce with vegetables such as yuca, yams, potatoes, carrots, or turnips. Recipe: Chicken and Vegetables Braised in Peanut Sauce (Gourmet)
• 2 Thiebou jen – The national dish of Senegal, a spicy stuffed fish simmered with vegetables in tomato paste, tamarind, and habanero pepper, and served over broken rice. Recipe: Theibou Jen (Yolele!)
• 3 Salatu niebe – A colorful salad with black-eyed peas, which are native to Africa, tomatoes, cucumbers, and parsley. Recipe: Black-Eyed Pea Salad (Yolele! via LA Times)
• 4 Yassa – A spicy dish of chicken or fish marinated in lemon/lime juice and onion and then grilled and caramelized. Recipe: Yassa Ginaar (Yolele! via Daily Traveler)
• 5 Banana fritters – A dessert of banana batter fried and sprinkled with sugar. Recipe: Banana Fritters (Yolele! via Society Hae)
If you're interested in learning more about Senegalese cuisine, we highly recommend the Yolele! cookbook. Actually, even if you aren't interested yet, we suggest checking it out, as perhaps you soon will be! Filled with recipes and colorful photographs that take readers on a journey through the streets, markets, and multicultural influences of Senegal, it's inspiring and eye-opening.
• Yolele! Recipes from the Heart of Senegal by Pierre Thiam
Related: Five Communal Dishes from Mauritania
Apartment Therapy Media makes every effort to test and review products fairly and transparently. The views expressed in this review are the personal views of the reviewer and this particular product review was not sponsored or paid for in any way by the manufacturer or an agent working on their behalf. However, the manufacturer did give us the product for testing and review purposes.
(Images: Maya Lau, Bartolini Bartpłomień, Glenn Koenig/Los Angeles Times, Brianne Karabetsos, Shevon Gant)
10 Low-Budget Pantry Items Everyone Should Have
Recipe: Spring Fruit and Nut Tabouli
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Monterey Pitcher fr...
Jessica's Crafted Space
Ana Creates a Community at Home
Awesome! Thanks!
I've never eaten Senegalese food, but that first dish looks delicious and gross at the same time. I won't *not* eat a dish because of a broken sauce, but it does make me know that I'm probably doing a bad thing for myself when I eat it.
Wow, this is incredible! I love African food and am attempting to learn how to cook it. I met a dear new friend here in Phoenix, a Sudanese refuge, who works as a cook in a large chain hotel. He says the women are the only ones who cook in his native land, so he's taught himself how to cook for this new opportunity. I'm hoping he will introduce me to native women friends of his, so I can be taught by the best!! http://missamyscerra.blogspot.com
Loving these posts with dishes common to other cultures! I wouldn't have thought to pair black eyed peas with cucumber and fresh tomato, but I have some beans in the freezer I'm gonna thaw out to give it a try.
Mmm, I love peanut butter based stews. And salatu niebe sounds similar to Texas Caviar.
I studied abroad in Senegal in college, and yassa poulet is really delicious (if my host family hadn't made it every single night) and ceebu jen sounds like it would be good... if it weren't soaked in oil and you didn't have to it with your hand and suffer through bright red oil dripping down your arms.
I heard so many wonderful things about Senegalese food before I left and couldn't have been more disappointed by the ceebu jen and leaf stews with mutton entrails.
Two things you missed were the delicious yogurt and millet, fundaye, and the wonderfully strong tea, attaya, with its fantastic manner of preparation.
Which recipe is the item pictured over rice? I click through to the recipes and don't find this picture, so once again I don't know what it is, and it looks really yummy. (This happens here a lot. I see it. I want to make it. I click all the links and am left wondering which it is...)
@jazminecat--I think the recipes are listed in the same order as the pictures. So the first picture of an item over rice is the Mafe stew. The fourth picture is also an item over rice and looks like the Yassa with the caramelized onions.
hm, sadly that link to the Mafe stew recipe looks nothing like that tasty-looking concoction above. *sigh*