How to prepare Ugandan local dishes?

Food is an essential part of everyday trips around the world or just down the street. Uganda is a landlocked locked country in East Africa whose diverse culture is rich enough to expose to a variety of dishes. You will enjoy both the familiar cuisines and the excitement of trying new ones everywhere you go. Curious about what Ugandan food is like? Try some local Ugandan dishes that will leave your taste buds asking for more. Ugandan cuisine is one of many gems that will
deepen your affection for this lovely land.

This article explains in detail how various Ugandan delicacies are made. enjoy;

Luwombo;
Luwombo is a traditional Ugandan dish, that has long been prepared at home for special occasions
Chicken Lubombo
You can decide to prepare this meal as a whole chicken or the chicken cut into pieces.
Smoke your chicken over charcoal until it’s golden brown.
Finely chop the onions, tomatoes, carrots, and green paper into the chicken.
peel and dice the potatoes into the chicken.
Add salt and spices to the water, mix well and pour into the chicken.
Add some oil if the chicken is not fatty enough.
Wrap the banana leaf and tie it up with kitchen tread or banana fibre.
To cook you can further wrap your luwombo with normal banana leaves in a saucepan
cushioned with a banana stem at the bottom and cover it to prevent loss of steam as much as
possible.
Cook for about 2 hours and serve with the food of your choice.

Matooke
Matooke is simple, healthy and delicious from green bananas. It is plantain which is the staple crop in Uganda. It is an important part of the diet for many people in the region. Matooke can be boiled, stewed, mashed, roasted or fried.
How to prepare mashed matooke
Peel the matooke fingers while putting them in a clean saucepan with cold water.
lay banana fibres in a crisscross form in the basket and put them in a banana leaf.
Wash and put the matooke on a banana leaf.
Wrap and fasten the banana fibres firmly. Ensure the banana fingers don’t fall out.
Place it into the saucepan which has water and pieces of banana stem.
Make a knot and ensure the fingers don’t fall out
Put the saucepan on fire to boil until the leaves turn brown.
When the food is ready, put it down and uncover it.
Put it back in the basket and mash it using fresh leaves.
After, cover it again and put it back on fire for some hours before serving it with sauce.
Well-cooked matooke is delicious.

Katogo
Katogo is a mixture of foods. It is a favourite in all regions of Uganda. It’s made up of staple food
usually, matooke, cassava, Irish potatoes or sweet potatoes which are cooked together with the sauce
usually meat, offals(Agenda), beans, peas or ground nuts.
The scrumptious dish is usually served for breakfast across the country.
How to prepare katogo
Boil with salt and water for about 10 minutes on high heat.
Meanwhile, melt cooking oil or butter
Add onions and drained beef, stir and let skimmer a few minutes.
Add to bananas as it starts to yellow, reduce heat to low and let skimmer gently until tender.
Serve as desired.

Chapati
This is delicious African flatbread that is enjoyed by most people in Uganda.
How to prepare a chapati
Mix flour and salt together in a bowl.

Add the required little water little at a time and knead to make a soft dough
Add a few tablespoonfuls of oil and knead well
The addition of oil makes the surface of the dough greased, smooth and pliable.
Cover it with a damp cloth and set aside for 15 to 20 minutes.
Cut the chapati dough and roll them into tennis ball sizes or bigger
Roll them into a nice flat circle, one at a time.
Heat up one tablespoonful of cooking oil in the large frying pan.
Fry the chapati on medium heat.
Flip it over when golden brown and keep adding a bit of oil, scuirling the chapati round with a fish
slice to distribute the oil under the chapati.

Rolex
Rolex is a Popular food item in Uganda combining an egg omelette and vegetables wrapped in a
chapati
How to prepare Rolex
Finely chop cabbage, onion and pepper.
Grate the carrot and cut the tomatoes
Crack eggs of your choice into a bowl.
Add the vegetables as a pinch of salt into the eggs bowl, then whisk to combine the ingredients.
Add vegetable oil to a hot pan
Pour the mix onto a hot pan and carefully flip the egg and turn it the other way around.
Take the chapati and egg out onto your working surface.
Add tomatoes, salt and Chili to taste.
Roll it up and serve.

Kikomando
Kikomando is a Ugandan dish consisting of chapati and beans. It is a variant of a Rolex.
It is prepared by slicing Ugandan chapati with fried beans.

Eshabwe
Eshabwe is a class of classified butter that originated from Ankole.
It’s a traditional sauce prepared in Ankole. Although now it’s enjoyed throughout the country for
special ceremonies or occasions. It began as a traditional wedding delicacy enjoyed by the groom and his father during the introduction ceremony. However, this has changed and now is served like any other dish to everyone.
Eshabwe is served as a condiment alongside millet bread(Karo), potatoes, matooke and others.
It is a thick white sauce made from salt and nature ghee. The Ingredients are very basic
mature ghee and a solution of rock salt and table salt.
How to make Eshabwe
Dissolve both the rock and table salt in warm water. The water should be at room temperature.
Sieve the solution to trap impurities
Put the ghee in a small, clean bowl and stir it briskly with a small masher in one direction until smooth.
Add salt solution, a tablespoonful at a time stirring briskly after each solution. The ghee would
begin to thicken and turn white
Continue adding a little of the salt solution and stirring briskly until the ghee increases in a
volume and becomes smooth, thick and pure white.
If the ghee curdles (look like spoilt milk), add a little more salt solution with some water at
room temperature. All this should be done gradually, a little at a time.
When the Eshabwe has doubled in volume, is very thick, creamy and pure white, taste a little and
add a pinch of salt if necessary. You may dilute the sauce if you want.
Sieve with a fine sieve into a clean bowl and serve a side dish with any meal of your choice.

Malewa
Malewa is a traditional Ugandan dish which is prepared using bamboo shoots. The shoots are
air-dried and smoked to give food a distinct flavour. It is then mixed with salt to give it a distinct
flavour. It’s then mixed with ground nut sauce to make a tasty sauce which can be enjoyed with
plantains,

Firinda
Firinda is a popular dish from Batooro and Banyoro tribes in western Uganda.
The meal is prepared by soaking beans and peeling off the skin. The beans are then boiled and
smashed into a thick porridge-like paste.
To get the perfect taste, add ghee, salt, tomatoes and onions.
Smoked meat or vegetables like greens and eggplants are added. The dish is commonly served
with Karo which is mingled millet or sorghum flour.

Malakwang.
Malakwang is a sour type of vegetable that is widely eaten and cooked in restaurants and
eating joints that serve Northern cuisine as well as in homes.
Malakwang can be eaten with millet bread and posho. However, many people love eating it with
sweet potatoes.
How Malakwang is prepared.
put the Malakwang leaves in the sun and leave them to dry for about 10 minutes. After they are
boiled in clean water till tender and the water is yellow-green in colour and drain water.
After the water is drained, add the boiled leaves to freshly boiled water and add a little salt.
Add groundnut paste. When it becomes ready, it assumes a cream-like thick porridge look
with green strikes of the greens.
The dish can also be mixed with boneless dry fish depending on one’s preference to improve
taste and aroma.

Mandazi
How to make mandazi
In a clean bowl, put flour and baking powder
Add salt, lemon zest and sugar and mix well
Rub in the butter till the flour becomes coarse.
Mix the vanilla in water. Add water to the flour and mix till a firm dough forms.
Knead the dough for about 2 minutes until it is no longer sticking to your hands. Set aside to
rest for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, flour your surface and roll out the dough to about one-inch thickness, cut out
rectangular chaps from the dough.
Place a pan on frying oil on medium heat. Let the oil heat through. Fry the mandazis in batches
for about 4-7 minutes or until Rosen or golden brown.

Karo(millet bread)
Millet is also known as Karo. This is a Ugandan delicacy and staple food for different tribes in East
Africa including the Ankole in western Uganda. It’s usually served with Eshabwe and in a
traditional basket and can be cut in small portions.
How Karo is made
Bring water to a boil in the heavy pan.
Add half of the millet and using a wooden spoon, stir briskly ensuring all the water becomes
absorbed and the bread is thick.
Lower the heat and keep stirring, adding more flour and water as needed. Ensure there are no
lumps.

Posho
This is almost bread made out of maize flour and water.
How posho is made?
Boil water
Mix the same amount of maize flour as the water you are boiling with about half as much water.
Once the water boils, mix the maize posho in and stir for a long time until it gets thick.
Steam the resulting mixture until it gets firm.
You can wrap it in banana leaves and then boil it for a few minutes and serve it with a sauce of
your choice.

Molokini/Kigere
Cow hoof stew, which is commonly known as mulokoni/kigere is one of the best local nutritious
soups enjoyed by most people in Uganda.How mulokoni is made
First, roast the hoof over a low flame of fire.
Wash the hooves thoroughly in clean water until they are clean.
Cut the hoof into desirable pieces of your choice, put them in water, add some salt and let it boil
for 2 hours until it’s thoroughly tender.
In the meantime, you can add your ingredients like tomatoes, onions, carrots, garlic and cook
until they are ready.
You can serve any other meal of your choice.

Posted By: Bruce Amp