Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Zambia recipes, part of Southern Africa. This page provides links to all the Zambian recipes presented on this site, with 16 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Zambian recipes added to this site.

Zambia, officially: Republic of Zambia Formerly Northern Rhodesia, the country's name reflects the Zambezi river. The capital and largest city is Lusaka and Zambia gained independence from Britain on October 24^th 1964.

Zambia's relative isolation and it's position atop a plateau in south-central Africa meant that it has been more isolated from external influences than other African countries. As a result, Zambian cuisine is one of the most traditionally native ones in Africa. The traditional staple of the diet is Nshima, a cornmeal pottage. Indeed, Nshima is such a big part of the Zambian culture and history that many rituals, expectations, expressions, customs, beliefs, and songs have developed in the culture around working for, cooking, and eating this dish. Despite this, foods such as cassava, peanuts and chillies have made their way into the Zambian diet. Unusually, though Zambia is culturally diverse with over 70 tribes and languages Zambian cuisine is fairly homogeneous. But there are differences between Eastern Zambia and Northern Zambia. In eastern Zambia (home of the Tumbuka peoples) meat is a more important part of the diet. Mice remain the staple, but beef chicken and mutton are also consumed. Meat stews, often flavoured with baking soda, salt and cayenne pepper are served with Nshima. Bemba cuisine of northern Zambia makes more use of peanuts, tomatoes, Onion, collard greens, pumpkin leaves, sweet potato leaves, spinach and cooked cabbage. Meat can be added to these stews, but this is not always the case. These stews tend to be served with Nshima or Samp.

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

Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, (Icitungu ca Zambia in Bemba) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bordered to the north by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique to the southeast, Zimbabwe and Botswana to the south, Namibia to the southwest, and Angola to the west. The capital city of Zambia is Lusaka, located in the south-central part of Zambia. The population is concentrated mainly around Lusaka in the south and the Copperbelt Province to the north, the core economic hubs of the country.

Originally inhabited by Khoisan peoples, the region was affected by the Bantu expansion of the thirteenth century. Following European explorers in the 18th century, the British colonised the region into the British protectorates of Barotziland–North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia towards the end of the 19th century. These were merged in 1911 to form Northern Rhodesia. For most of the colonial period, Zambia was governed by an administration appointed from London with the advice of the British South Africa Company.

On 24 October 1964, Zambia became independent of the United Kingdom and prime minister Kenneth Kaunda became the inaugural president. Kaunda's socialist United National Independence Party (UNIP) maintained power from 1964 until 1991 with him playing a key role in regional diplomacy, cooperating closely with the United States in search of solutions to conflicts in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Angola, and Namibia. From 1972 to 1991, Zambia was a one-party state with UNIP as the sole legal political party under the motto 'One Zambia, One Nation' coined by Kaunda. Kaunda was succeeded by Frederick Chiluba of the social-democratic Movement for Multi-Party Democracy in 1991, beginning a period of socio-economic development and government decentralisation. Zambia has since become a multi-party state and has experienced several peaceful transitions of power.

Zambia contains abundant natural resources, including minerals, wildlife, forestry, freshwater, and arable land. In 2010, the World Bank named Zambia among the top 10 reformers in the World Bank's Ease of doing business index. As of the latest estimate in 2018, 47.9 percent of the population is affected by multidimensional poverty. The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) is headquartered in Lusaka.

The territory of Zambia was known as Northern Rhodesia from 1911 to 1964. It was renamed Zambia in October 1964 on its independence from British rule. The name Zambia derives from the Zambezi River (Zambezi may mean 'the grand river').

Food and Cuisine:

Zambian cuisine offers a range of dishes, which primarily features nshima, a staple thick porridge crafted from maize flour, locally known as mealie meal. Nshima itself is quite plain, but it is typically accompanied by an array of traditional Zambian side dishes that introduce a spectrum of flavours to the meal.

Zambia's cultural diversity, comprising over 72 tribes across 10 provinces, has an array of culinary practices. The national cuisine is unified by staple foods, with variations manifesting chiefly in cooking techniques that vary by region. A notable example is the popular snack made from cassava and groundnuts, which is roasted in some locales while fried in others. Additionally, Zambia's tropical climate facilitates the cultivation of a vast range of crops that contribute to the local gastronomy. Markets and street vendors are abundant with fresh vegetables, and foraged wild greens are also a staple in the Zambian diet.