The name tells you what to expect. Red palm oil colours the beans stew, and slices of fried ripe plantain glow orange-red beside it. Red red is one of Ghana’s simplest and most satisfying meals, eaten for lunch at roadside chop bars, by students on a budget and by families at home. Sprinkled with gari, it is a complete meal for very little money.
What red red is and its ingredients
Red red combines a stew of black-eyed beans or cowpeas, cooked with palm oil, onions, tomatoes and pepper, with fried ripe plantain, a simpler relative of spiced kelewele. The beans are boiled until soft, then simmered in a sauce of palm oil, onions and pepper. Some cooks add smoked fish or shrimp. Red palm oil gives the dish its colour and distinctive flavour. It is widely used in Ghanaian cooking.
Ripe plantain is sliced and fried until golden and sweet, balancing the savoury beans.
Where to eat it, price and home cooking
Many people sprinkle gari, roasted cassava granules, on top to add texture and make the meal more filling. Red red is sold at chop bars, roadside stands and small restaurants across Ghana. The beans provide protein and fibre, making red red a good choice for vegetarians if no fish is added. It remains one of the cheapest filling meals in Ghana.
Red red appears on menus at Ghanaian restaurants and has been featured by food writers abroad. It is easy to make at home with simple ingredients. Some people eat the beans with bread, rice or boiled yam instead of plantain.
A student favourite and cooking tips
On university campuses, red red is a popular cheap meal. Red red sits alongside waakye, kenkey and banku as one of Ghana’s everyday comfort foods. It is often the meal people crave when they return home after years abroad, and many diaspora Ghanaians cook it for friends as an introduction to Ghanaian cuisine. Soak the beans overnight to cut cooking time, and add the palm oil gradually so the stew does not become too greasy.
Ghana has many celebrated dishes. Red red is the one that feeds the most people for the least money, and most of them would not swap it for anything fancier.
