Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Angolan recipes, part of Central Africa. This page provides links to all the Angolan recipes presented on this site, with 27 recipes in total.

Angola, officially: República de Angola; Repubilika ya Ngola; Republic of Angola A former Portuguese colony, it has considerable natural resources, among which oil and diamonds are the most significant. The capital and largest city is Lwanda and independence from Portugal was gained on November 11, 1975. Angola was ruled by Portugal and both countries share cultural aspects: language (Portuguese) and main religion (Roman Catholic Christianity). But since most Angolans are blacks, the Angolan culture is mostly native Bantu which was mixed with Portuguese culture.

The Portugese colonized Angola for almost four centuries and their influence on Angloa's cuisine has been subtle but pervasive. The Portuguese brought the European sense of flavouring with spices and techniques of roasting and marinating to the traditional Angolan foods. These influences blended with the local cuisine and produced interesting new recipes. Sea food is a common part of the diet as are cassava, yams and sweet potatoes. The cuisine of Angola can be called a ‘rainbow cuisine’ because it has integrated influences from India, Malaya and Europe.

These recipes, for the major part, originate in Angola. Otherwise they are fusion recipes with major Angolan influences.

Angola officially the Republic of Angola (República de Angola in Portuguese) is a country on the west-central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) country in both total area and population and is the seventh-largest country in Africa. It is bordered by Namibia to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Zambia to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Angola has an exclave province, the province of Cabinda, that borders the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The capital and most populous city is Luanda.

Angola has been inhabited since the Paleolithic Age. After the Bantu expansion reached the region, states were formed by the 13th century and organised into confederations. The Kingdom of Kongo ascended to achieve hegemony among the other kingdoms from the 14th century. Portuguese explorers established relations with Kongo in 1483. To the south were the kingdoms of Ndongo and Matamba, with the Ovimbundu kingdoms further south, and the Mbunda Kingdom in the east.

The Portuguese began colonising the coast in the 16th century. Kongo fought three wars against the Portuguese, ending in the Portuguese conquest of Ndongo. The banning of the slave trade in the 19th century severely disrupted Kongo's undiversified economic system and European settlers gradually began to establish their presence in the interior of the region. The Portuguese colony that became Angola did not achieve its present borders until the early 20th century and experienced the strong resistance from the native groups such as the Cuamato, the Kwanyama, and the Mbunda. After a protracted anti-colonial struggle (1961–1974), Angola achieved independence in 1975 as a one-party Republic, but the country descended into a devastating civil war the same year, between the ruling People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), backed by the Soviet Union and Cuba; the insurgent National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, an originally Maoist and later anti-communist group supported by the United States and South Africa; the militant organization National Liberation Front of Angola, backed by Zaire; and the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda seeking the independence of the Cabinda exclave, also backed by Zaire.

Since the end of the civil war in 2002, Angola has emerged as a relatively stable constitutional republic, and its economy is among the fastest-growing in the world, with China, the European Union, and the United States being the country's largest investment and trade partners. However, the economic growth is highly uneven, with most of the nation's wealth concentrated in a disproportionately small part of the population as most Angolans have a low standard of living; life expectancy is among the lowest in the world, while infant mortality is among the highest.

Etymology: The name Angola comes from the Portuguese colonial name Reino de Angola ('Kingdom of Angola'), which appeared as early as Paulo Dias de Novais's 1571 charter. The toponym was derived by the Portuguese from the title ngola, held by the kings of Ndongo and Matamba. Ndongo in the highlands, between the Kwanza and Lucala rivers, was nominally a possession of the Kingdom of Kongo. But in the 16th century it was seeking greater independence.

Angolan Food and Cuisine:

Angolan cuisine in its modern shape is a combination of indigenous African ingredients and cooking techniques, and Portuguese influences and ingredients brought over from other Portuguese colonies, such as Brazil. Staple ingredients include beans and rice, pork and chicken, various sauces, and vegetables such as tomatoes and onions. Spices such as garlic are also frequently seen. Funge, a type of porridge made with cassava, is a staple dish.

Funge (or funje, Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈfũʒɨ]) and pirão ([piˈɾɐ̃w]) are very common dishes, and in poorer households often consumed at every meal. The dish is often eaten with fish, pork, chicken, or beans. funge de bombo ([ˈfũʒɨ ðɨ ˈβõbu]), more common in northern Angola, is a paste or porridge of cassava (also called manioc or yuca), made from cassava flour. It is gelatinous in consistency and gray in color. Pirão, yellow in color and similar to polenta, is made from cornflour and is more common in the south. Fuba ([fuˈβa]) is the term for the flour that is used to make either funge and pirão, also used to make angu, the Brazilian polenta. Both foods are described as bland but filling and are often eaten with sauces and juices or with gindungo (see below), a spicy condiment.

Moamba de galinha (or chicken moamba, [ˈmwɐ̃bɐ ðɨ ɣɐˈlĩɲɐ]) is chicken with palm paste, okra, garlic and palm oil hash or red palm oil sauce, often served with rice and funge. Both funge and moamba de galinha have been considered the national dish. A variant dish of moamba de galinha, moamba de ginguba, uses ginguba ([ʒĩˈɡuβɐ], peanut sauce) instead of palm paste