African Main Dish Recipes

This recipe is one of the most famous recipes in Egypt. It's a traditional food that is delicious and savory.

A delicate, flavorful dish that will satisfy vegans and carnivores alike! Inspired by my family's deep Coptic Orthodox Christian tradition, this is a great meal alternative during strict fasting times. It contains no animal products or fats, but has enough flavor and visual impact to make you feel like you're not sacrificing a thing! I hope you will enjoy this recipe. Add chicken or prawns to make this vegan dish a carnivorous delight!

This Moroccan slow cooker dish is the perfect blend of sweetness and spice.

Serving a gorgeous, fancy-looking holiday roast doesn't have to be complicated, time-consuming, or expensive. This pork loin proves exactly that. This is fast, easy, and affordable, but when you bring it to the table, it looks like a million dollars. The beautifully warming and aromatic spices really work so well with a pork roast - I hope you give it a try soon!

Chicken is marinated in a spicy piri piri pepper sauce, then grilled in this simple but flavorful African-inspired piri piri chicken breast recipe. I like to serve this with a cool yogurt sauce and fonio pilaf.

Every Shabbat my mother-in-law makes this fish. I've modified it since the fish she uses in Israel isn't available in the Midwest. When you smell this fish cooking, you know it's Shabbat! Serve this with lots of Challah to soak up the yummy juice!

Chicken thighs full of spice and amazing scents to take you right to the Mediterranean. Great with quinoa or brown rice and lots green veggies.

This simple meatball dish is delicious, rich, and fresh. It was taught to me by my Algerian husband, one of his favorites from home. The tomato sauce can be used for anything and the amounts of flavors can be adjusted. I like a lot of garlic and pepper. I have also found halal hamburger to be much leaner and lighter than regular. You can find it at international food stores and halal butcher shops in bigger cities. Serve this dish with a French baguette.

Oxtail is my favorite meal and I serve this recipe to all my friends and use it for my frozen food business. Everyone loves it. I call it God's food as it is so delicious! This meal is very rich, but oh so good! Oxtail is easily available here in Africa but I have heard it can be obtained in the US.

This simple, spicy kebab dish allows you to replicate the delicacy sold by Nigerian street vendors.

This recipe is a traditional Easter time classic in Cape Town, South Africa. It is served mainly with hot cross buns or freshly baked bread.

Merguez sausage is not commonly stocked at the grocery store, so I decided to come up with an easy home version .

This perfect meal features all four food groups. It is inspired by the Arabic dish called 'Maqluba,' which translates to 'upside down.' When the meal has finished cooking, you take the pot and flip it upside down onto a large serving platter, and everybody helps themselves.

This is Somali-style spaghetti sauce with my own little twist. We make this once a week in our house (my daughter craves it!). I hope you enjoy this as much as we do!

Sweet and savory stewed chicken with dried fruits and exotic spices. Serve this on top of couscous and top with toasted almonds and fresh cilantro. Children love the familiarity of the 'sweet' spices and dried fruits.

If you love Ethiopian food, this is a must-try. This is one of my favorite dishes. Serve hot over injera with the sauce to soak up.

One of my go-to favorites; hubby would eat it weekly, and he's not vegan. Serve with cilantro and chopped peanuts.

A South African chutney recipe. Serve with rice and a green salad if desired. Divine!

In this dish, the Instant Pot® is used to create a dish reminiscent of a slowly braised stew in a traditional clay tagine. It's a sweet-and-savory, highly flavorful combo that will take you back to your Moroccan trip or inspire you to start planning for that Sahara camel-trek. Chicken is cooked until tender with onions, garlic, turmeric, ginger, and cinnamon. Apricots steep in the broth. Serve with rice or couscous and Greek yogurt.

Koshary is pretty much Egypt's staple street food. You can find anything from a 2-story koshary restaurant to a man with a cart on the side of the street. It has no meat, but even the biggest of carnivores don't miss it. Filling and healthy, come see Egypt's most famous dish! Instead of French-fried onions, I use my black pepper onion rings on here. I also caramelize about 4 large onions in butter and brown sugar for about 45 minutes and have both kinds of onion on there. It really makes it over the top, but a little too much to call it the real street food of Egypt, more like the home-style kind. I hope you enjoy!

Your Instant Pot® replaces the traditional clay or ceramic cone-shaped cooking pot used in Moroccan cuisine (the tagine). The word 'tagine' also refers to the slow-cooked, stew-like dish that is prepared in it. This chicken tagine features the authentic flavors of preserved lemons and olives, with a delicious combination of spices typically used in Moroccan cooking.

A classic South African entree. While not particularly spicy, the dish has complex flavors with the sweetness of raisins contrasting the curry. Serve with yellow rice.

This one-dish stew is deliciously different. It is very healthy, also. My husband asked for seconds! Serve in soup bowls.

Tagines are Moroccan slow-cooked meat, fruit and vegetable dishes which are almost invariably made with mutton. Using lamb cuts down the cooking time, but if you can find good hogget (older than lamb, younger than mutton, commonly labeled 'baking legs' and sold cheaply) that will do very well.