Mozambican Cuisine

Mozambican cuisine is the food tradition of Mozambique, a mixture of indigenous foods and cooking practices with outside influences from Indian Ocean trade and from Portuguese colonization. Millet and sorghum were the primary grains before colonization and the Columbian exchange, and maize has largely displaced them as a staple. The staple food for many Mozambicans is xima, a thick porridge made from maize flour, with cassava and rice also eaten as staple carbohydrates, all served with sauces of vegetables, meat, beans or fish. Portuguese influence brought new crops such as tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and cassava, and the refogado, a base of tomatoes, onions, garlic and piri-piri sauteed in vegetable oil. Indian Ocean trade contacts brought curry, and Goanese influence connected curry with coconut. As a coastal nation, Mozambique has a cuisine with a lot of seafood. Matapa, a stew of cassava leaves, ground peanuts, onions and tomatoes, commonly served over rice, is one of its best-known dishes.