Welcome to No Plantains Left Behind

A newsletter/archive to share my love for West African food

Hello! Thank you for subscribing to my newsletter.

Before moving forward to all the newsletters that I will subsequently release, it was important to share an introductory newsletter.

First of all, I want to thank you for subscribing to my newsletter. For the past few months, I have been thinking about creating a newsletter that provides more value beyond updates on my recipes and content. I wanted to create a space to share things beyond recipes — a space to archive the things I am learning and exploring around Ghanaian and West African food.

The newsletters I periodically sent in the past were fleeting, and I wanted a place where you, as a reader, could always come back to review things I have shared and exclusive recipes I had created.

Introductions

My name is Afia and I am obsessed with Ghanaian/West African food.

The world does not know much about West African/Ghanaian food, especially in the corner of the world I live in. Like many aspects of the continent, our foods have been reduced to a handful of dishes, mainly jollof rice, fufu and peanut stews, which do not scratch the surface or the breadth of food the continent has to offer.

For the last few years, my goal has been to highlight West African food through culture and history. Through short videos and reels, I have shared my love for West African ingredients, how recipes are rooted in our culture and traditions, and my travels across Ghana learning more about my home country. However, videos are fleeting, social media algorithms are changing, and there are many more things I want to write about and share.

What you will get from this newsletter

As a Ghanaian foodie, my goal with this newsletter is to archive what I am learning about Ghanaian food — our ingredients, our food processes and how that intricately connects to our culture. As many of our cultures share similarities, some of these topics can apply across West African food systems.

The newsletter will include

• Exclusive Recipes

• Applying Ghanaian cooking techniques to everyday cooking.

• Deep dive into ingredients, Ghanaian food culture and food process.

  • Topics I will be covering include — the Lost Crops of Africa, The unrefined oils of Ghana, essentials in a Ghanaian Pantry, foods inspired by Akan proverbs and Adinkra symbols and many more.

• Archives from my patreon — history of West African rice, African ingredients that have profound impact on the world (example coca cola) etc.

• A semi-regular segment I have labeled “No Plantains Left Behind” to offer creative uses to plantains at any stage of ripeness

• Behind the scenes of how I bring to life some of my recipes and the research that goes on behind it. I am writing a cookbook so this is the perfect avenue for additional content.

• Personal connection with Ghanaian/West African food, culture and tradition.

A newsletter for all

As a plant-based eater of nearly a decade basing her food choices primarily on Ghanaian and West African food, I know that our continent has something to offer for all types of eaters. Recipes will be made as accessible as possible with information on substitutions when possible. So make sure to stick around and subscribe to my newsletter.

This newsletter is free.

Where else to find me

You can find me as Eat with Afia on all social media platforms. My recipes all live on my website (thecanadianafrican.com)

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