Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Bouillie de Manioc
A silky Central African cassava porridge, whisked from the national staple flour and sweetened, often enriched with a spoon of peanut paste.
Central African · easy · serves 4
prep 5 min · cook 15 min
~177 cal · 2g protein · 34g carbs · 4g fat · 2g fiber · 11g sugars · 1g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Bouillie de manioc is the porridge of the Central African Republic, where is not one staple among many but the foundation of eating itself: more than four fifths of Central Africans live on the root, and over half the country's energy comes from it. The dried, chips called cossettes are milled into flour, and that flour whisked into boiling water makes the morning bouillie.
starch cooks unlike any grain, turning glossy, translucent, and almost silky, so the porridge is smooth and light on the stomach. On its own it is mild, which is why it is sweetened with sugar and very often enriched with a spoonful of peanut paste stirred through, the combination nutritionists in the region have long promoted because the groundnut brings the protein the root lacks.
It is dawn food in Bangui and across the country, ladled hot for children before school and eaten by adults with bread or beignets alongside. The faint sour note in the flour, from the traditional retting of the in water, is part of its character, the taste of the Central African staple in its gentlest form.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
1 cup flour
4.5 cups water
2 tbsp smooth peanut butter (optional), the traditional enrichment
3 tbsp sugar, or to taste
a pinch salt
Instructions
1
Whisk the cassava flour with 1 cup of cold water into a smooth, thin paste.
2
Bring the remaining 3.5 cups of water to a boil with the salt, then pour in the cassava paste in a steady stream, whisking constantly as it turns glossy and begins to thicken.
✎ Chef’s note
Cassava starch thickens fast and dramatically compared with grain flours; keep the whisk moving for the first minute and it will stay perfectly smooth.
3
If using the peanut butter, loosen it with a ladle of the hot porridge, then stir it back into the pot.
4
Simmer gently for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until the porridge is silky and no longer tastes raw, then sweeten with the sugar.
5
Serve hot in bowls, thinned with a little extra hot water if you prefer it drinkable.
Central African home cooking.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Bangui. Bangui is a riverside capital cooking cassava in every form, with sauces built on pumpkin and squash seeds ground to a rich paste. Smoked river fish, bushmeat stews, and fiery pepper accompany the staple chikwangue.
🗺️
Central African Republic. Kanda is the country's real signature and it is not a peanut sauce: pumpkin or squash seeds toasted and ground, bound with okra and meat or fish into a dense stew. Some of the squashes involved are African natives rather than American imports, which quietly complicates the usual story about where squash comes from.
🌍
Africa. The structure repeats across most of the continent: one starch and one sauce. A grain or root is cooked stiff, torn or rolled by hand, and used to carry a stew of leaves, groundnut, okra or fish, usually from a shared bowl and with the right hand. UNESCO listings have followed that logic, inscribing couscous in 2020 as a shared Maghreb tradition and Ivorian attieke in 2024.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Central African Republic
Kanda ti NymaCentral African meatballs simmered in a nutty tomato-and-okra sauce thickened with ground pumpkin seeds.
BeignetsCentral African breakfast doughnuts: puffy, golden yeasted fritters fried fresh at dawn and dusted with sugar, eaten with sweet coffee.
Gozo with Groundnut SauceSmooth cassava fufu served with a rich, savory peanut sauce, an everyday plate across the Central African Republic.
Browse all Central African Republic recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan, Whisk.
Storing it: Thickens as it sits. Reheat with extra water or milk to loosen, and keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated.
Make it a Central African Republic meal
Jus de TamarinDrink
Beignets de Banane (Banana Fritters)Dessert
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Frequently asked questions
What is Bouillie de Manioc?
A silky Central African cassava porridge, whisked from the national staple flour and sweetened, often enriched with a spoon of peanut paste.
Where does Bouillie de Manioc come from?
Bouillie de Manioc is a Central African dish from Bangui, Central African Republic.
Can Bouillie de Manioc be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Bouillie de Manioc recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Bouillie de Manioc safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Bouillie de Manioc take to make?
About 20 minutes total (5 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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