Ndolé
A rich stew of bitterleaf (or spinach), ground peanuts, and smoked fish or beef, considered Cameroon’s national dish and a fixture of celebration tables.
Does your family know it this way?
The names it answers to
- NdoléDuala (Cameroon)
MEANING
The bitterleaf at its base is traditionally washed repeatedly to draw out its bitterness, a labour-intensive step that marks the difference between a rushed version and a properly made one.
Meanings are plural by design: your family may hold another. Dispute or add below; disagreement is recorded, never erased.
When it appears
Ingredients, in sketch
Named components, not a recipe: no quantities, no method unless the making itself is part of the custom.
Who eats it
Provenance
- generated: 2026-07-10
- source: Model-knowledge aggregation pass (2026-07-10); unverified, awaiting community affirmation.
This entry is a hypothesis awaiting its people. If your family holds this dish differently, that difference is exactly what we want recorded.
Nearby in the library
Umngqusho
Samp (crushed maize) slow-cooked with sugar beans, often with onion and chilli, into a hearty, deeply savoury dish: famously the food Nelson Mandela requested for his own birthday.
🇿🇦Xhosa
Potjiekos
A layered meat-and-vegetable stew cooked slowly over an open fire in a three-legged cast-iron pot, never stirred, so each layer keeps its own character.
🇿🇦 🇳🇦Afrikaners · South Africans
Bobotie
Spiced minced meat baked under a golden egg custard, sweet and savoury together with curry spice, dried fruit, and almonds: the signature dish of Cape Malay cooking.
🇿🇦Cape Malay