The 20 most famous dishes of Somalia
Somali cooking sits where the Horn of Africa meets Arabia, India and Italy — famous for spiced rice, goat and camel meat, sambuusa and canjeero bread, and tea with cardamom and cloves.
1Bariis Iskukaris
Somali spiced rice with xawaash spice, meat, raisins and onion, served with a banana on the side — the top…
2Canjeero (Laxoox)
A thin, spongy fermented flatbread eaten at breakfast with ghee, sugar and tea or with meat.
3Suqaar
Small cubes of meat stir-fried with onion, peppers and xawaash, eaten with canjeero or rice.
4Hilib Ari (Somali Goat)
Goat marinated in xawaash, slow-cooked then browned and served with bariis — one of Somalia's best-known…
5Sambuusa
Crisp triangles filled with spiced minced meat, onion, chili and coriander — the star of Ramadan iftar.
6Muufo
A flat cornbread baked in a tandoor or on a griddle, eaten with stews and ghee.
7Maraq Fahfah
Spicy goat broth with vegetables, xawaash and chili, served with muufo or canjeero.
8Xalwo
A glossy Somali sweet of sugar, starch, ghee, cardamom and nutmeg, served at weddings and Eid.
9Shaah
Milky tea with cardamom, cloves and ginger, drunk several times a day.
10Malawax
Thin, sweet cardamom crêpes cooked in ghee, eaten at breakfast with tea.
11Beer iyo Basal
Diced liver fried with onion, pepper and xawaash — a famous Somali breakfast with canjeero.
12Cambuulo
Adzuki beans cooked with rice, ghee and sugar — a traditional Somali supper.
13Kac Kac
Somali triangular doughnuts with cardamom and coconut milk, fried and eaten with tea.
14Doolsho (Somali Cake)
A Somali cardamom cake — an Italian legacy served at Eid and weddings.
15Baasto iyo Suugo
Somali pasta with a xawaash-spiced meat sauce — a legacy of the Italian era, often eaten with a banana.
16Soor
Thick cornmeal porridge eaten with stew or with milk, ghee and sugar.
17Muqmad
Dried meat cubes fried in ghee with dates and cardamom, keeping for months — food of nomadic herders.
18Digaag Qumbe
Chicken in a coconut-milk, tomato and xawaash sauce, served with rice.
19Kalluun (Somali Fish)
Indian Ocean fish seasoned with xawaash and lemon and fried, served with rice and banana.
20Sabaayad
A flaky ghee flatbread like chapati, eaten with stews or with tea.