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What to eat in Africa? Top 17 African Salads

Last update: Thu Feb 13 2025
Top 17 African Salads
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01
Mechouia Salad
Mechouia Salad infographic
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Mechouia is a Tunisian salad made with grilled, coarsely chopped onions, peppers, tomatoes, and garlic, drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with caraway, salt, and black pepper. The salad is then typically garnished with hard-boiled eggs, olives, or tuna.


The salad can be served on its own, but it is also often served on toasted bread or baguette slices. It is quite common to find it in Tunisia as a part of a mix of appetizers in traditional restaurants.

MOST ICONIC Mechouia Salad

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02

Salad

TUNISIA
4.4
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Houria is a Tunisian salad made with carrots, harissa, garlic, vinegar, olive oil, caraway seeds, and salt. The salad is inexpensive and very easy to prepare. The carrots should be boiled and then lightly smashed into a purée. The purée is then combined with all other ingredients, and the salad is typically garnished with finely chopped parsley on top.


However, there are many versions of this dish, so it is not uncommon to see hard-boiled eggs, olives, crumbled feta cheese, or coriander in the salad, which is typically served as a side dish, but it can also be consumed on its own.

03

Salad

MOROCCO
4.1
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Zaalouk is a traditional salad made by cooking eggplant, tomatoes, garlic, and flavorings such as cumin, paprika, coriander, and parsley. Although it can be served on its own, zaalouk is also often served as a side dish, a spread for sandwiches, or a dip, when it is paired with crusty bread.

MOST ICONIC Zaalouk

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04

Salad

ETHIOPIA
4.0
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Azifa is a popular Ethiopian salad consisting of green lentils, finely chopped tomatoes, and onions. The salad is additionally seasoned with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. When served, it is sometimes garnished with toasted almonds and chopped olives.


Azifa is traditionally served chilled, and is consumed as an accompaniment to various meat or fish dishes. It keeps well if refrigerated and can also be used as a stuffing for pita bread.

05
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Kachumbari is a refreshing East African salad based on finely chopped onions, chili peppers, and tomatoes. It can be served as a salad, a condiment, a relish, or an appetizer. In Uganda, it is accompanied by nyama choma, in Kenya, it is served with ugali and pilau, and in Tanzania, it is usually paired with rice pilau or biryani.


There are numerous variations of the dish, so some cooks will add lemon juice, coriander, avocadoes, or cucumbers.

06
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Taktouka is a healthy and nutritious Moroccan salad consisting of cooked tomatoes and green peppers mashed into a purée. The salad is often served as a side dish to grilled meat and fish dishes, although it can also be used as a dip, when it's consumed with crusty bread, used for scooping up the salad.


It is recommended to garnish taktouka with freshly chopped parsley or coriander and a drizzle of olive oil.

07

Salad

ETHIOPIA
3.4
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Timatim salata is a refreshing Ethiopian salad that's also quite popular in Eritrea. The salad consists of diced tomatoes, onions, and finely chopped hot peppers. It is typically seasoned with berbere spices, oil, vinegar, and lemon juice. The dish is most commonly consumed after spicy Ethiopian wat dishes, but it is also often served on top of injera flatbreads.


If timatim salata is combined with shredded injera, it is then known as timatim firfir.

08

Salad

ERITREA
n/a
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Fata is often described as the Eritrean version of panzanella, but in this case, the dish is not tossed with tomatoes but with a rich and spicy tomato stew which is soaked up by crusty bread. This spicy tomato and bread salad typically consists of minced onions, garlic, diced tomatoes, oil, tomato paste, cayenne pepper, allspice, and pieces of crusty bread.


The whole salad is usually dressed with full-fat yogurt, providing refreshment and contrast to the bold flavors of other ingredients.

09
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Lasary avocat is a traditional salad originating from Madagascar. This simple salad is usually made with a combination of avocado, scallions, tomatoes, and a dressing consisting of lemon juice, olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. The avocado is lengthwise, and the pit is removed.


The flesh is scooped out with a spoon, and each half is served on a plate with chopped onions and diced tomatoes sprinkled on top. The dressing is poured over the salad, and lasary avocat is ready to be enjoyed. This salad can also be served as an accompaniment to main dishes.

10
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Lasary voatabia is a traditional tomato and onion salad originating from Madagascar. It's typically made with a combination of seeded and chopped tomatoes, thinly sliced green onions, lime juice, salt, grated ginger, hot sauce such as Tabasco, and black pepper.


The ingredients are mixed in a bowl, and the salad is then left to chill in the fridge. It's recommended to garnish lasary voatabia with chopped parsley or coriander before serving. This salad is often served as a side dish to poulet au coco and romazava, or used as a topping for sandwiches.

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Salad
ESWATINI
n/a
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TasteAtlas food rankings are based on the ratings of the TasteAtlas audience, with a series of mechanisms that recognize real users and that ignore bot, nationalist or local patriotic ratings, and give additional value to the ratings of users that the system recognizes as knowledgeable. For the “Top 17 African Salads” list until February 13, 2025, 1,081 ratings were recorded, of which 200 were recognized by the system as legitimate. TasteAtlas Rankings should not be seen as the final global conclusion about food. Their purpose is to promote excellent local foods, instill pride in traditional dishes, and arouse curiosity about dishes you haven’t tried.

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African Salads