Saturday 25 July 2009

Vegetarian in Ghana?

Paul McCartney, a known vegetarian has gotten together with other celebs to promote having at least one meat-free day a week. Apparently, meat-production amounts to 18% of the world's gas emissions so if we all chose to stay off meat for just one day a week these emissions could be drastically reduced.

I read the article and considered how this could be effectively promoted in Ghana. It wouldn't be a problem for me, I could have a normal breakfast, porridge and fruits, spinach and feta pie for lunch and greek pasta salad for dinner.

But how to do this with our traditional meals? At first it seemed quite difficult, how do I eat my fufu and groundnut soup without chicken, my yam and abenkwan without fish? What is Red Red without fish (just Red?), jollof without chicken and rice without meat/corned beef stew?

But on further thought, we have quite a number of lighter vegetarian dishes/snacks. How about Kofi Brokeman (roasted plantain with groundnuts), kelelwele (fried, spicy plantain) or is anything as good as fried yam with fresh green pepper?! And I guess for one day a week we can all sacrifice and have our Red Red just Red, our Wakye with only Kosya (egg) and Abenkwan with beans instead (try it at Agbamami, it's yummy). Add to the Kontomire without meat, replace the meat/fish in your Garden Egg stew with...more Garden Eggs and swap the corned beef stew for egg stew and voila, you have quite a few dishes to play with. I'll definitely give it a try when I get back.

The Ghanaian Swede obsesses about Swedish foods when in Ghana and writes about Ghanaian dishes whilst in Sweden... why is the grass always greener on the other side?

7 comments:

Kajsa Hallberg Adu said...

What? Are you saying that the grass is not super-duper-green in Sweden? :-)

My vegetarian friend recommended the vegetarian restaurant in Accra at the Aviation social centre-traffic light close to 37 - on the right side if coming from Busma Camp. There all the Ghanaian soups are served with out meat!

Maya Mame said...

I've always wondered what that place would be like, pass it all the time but the sign looks a bit...aged, so I wasn't sure if it was up and running. May have to try omotuo and groundnut/palmnut soup there instead of at Agbamame some time.

Anonymous said...

Just had a vegetarian lunch and it sucked. lolol. I guess it was my combination of sides...didnt go too well together.

Maya Mame said...

Well Anon, at least you did your bit for the environment!

Abena Serwaa said...

Interesting stuff...even for a pescatarian like me being a vegetarian in Ghana would be really hard! I basically binge on fish meals.Have also wondered about the vegetarian restaurant at 37...looks quite rinky dink.I used to go to the vegetarian place near Bus-stop (very close to Circle...the name escapes me now)they have(had?) nice tofu products.

Maya Mame said...

Yeah, Abena, they really ought to do up that Cantonments place if they want more customers. Haven't heard of the circle one, prob coz I have a fear of Circle (as in the actual roundabout itself), but if I don't need to go through the roundabout then I might just give it a go.

Obibini Bruni said...

The ease to which you find becoming vegetarian is commendable, however I am concerned about your nutritional balance ...

Further, the dishes you mention as needing meat could easily be eaten without meat, something I do on a regular basis. Especially something like red red, which already has beans; replace the fish with fruits and you got a balanced meal! Waakye already has both your grain and your protein, so instead of egg, take more leaves and again your meal is closer to being balanced. This could be done with all meals, so my concern would rather be stews and soups being made with meat in them.
https://obibinibruni.org/2017/03/06/carnivore-reactions-part-2/

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