Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Chura Gerteh
The Gambia's thick groundnut-and-rice porridge, faintly oily and nutty, served hot with yoghurt or condensed milk.
Gambian · easy · serves 4
prep 10 min · cook 30 min
~774 cal · 25g protein · 92g carbs · 37g fat · 6g fiber · 45g sugars · 9g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Chura gerteh is The Gambia's groundnut and rice porridge, a hot, thick breakfast (and sometimes supper) built on the country's two defining crops. Raw peanuts and rice are pounded or ground together into a coarse flour, then simmered slowly in water until the mixture turns creamy and a thin sheen of peanut oil rises to the top, the sign that it is done.
The name is plain Wolof and Mandinka market language: gerteh is the groundnut, the crop that shaped Gambian farming and trade for over a century. The porridge is thicker than oatmeal, gently savoury from the nuts, and finished at the table, where each person stirs in sugar and spoons over sour yoghurt, sour cream, or condensed milk to taste.
It is everyday food in compounds from Banjul to the upriver villages, cheap, filling, and nourishing enough to carry a morning of work. Families grind a big batch of the peanut and rice base and keep it dry, so the porridge is only ever a pot of boiling water away.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, 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 raw peanuts, skins on
1 cup long grain white rice
5 cups water
1/2 tsp salt
to taste sugar
1 cup plain yoghurt or condensed milk, to serve
Instructions
1
Grind the peanuts in a food processor to the texture of cornmeal, then add the rice and grind another minute until the mixture is a coarse flour.
✎ Chef’s note
Stop before it turns to paste: the little bit of grit is what gives chura gerteh its body. Traditionally this is pounded in a mortar.
2
Bring the water to a boil with the salt and rain in the peanut and rice mixture while stirring.
3
Reduce to medium low and cook for about 30 minutes, stirring often so the bottom does not scorch, until the porridge is thick and creamy and big slow bubbles rise and pop from the base of the pot.
✎ Chef’s note
A faint layer of peanut oil shimmering on top is the traditional sign that it is properly cooked.
4
Take it off the heat and serve warm, with sugar and the yoghurt or condensed milk on the side for everyone to stir in to their own taste.
Gambian home cooking.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Banjul. Banjul sits at the mouth of the Gambia River and is devoted to superkanja, a thick okra stew with palm oil, smoked fish, and meat over rice. Groundnut stews, benachin one-pot rice, and river fish are everyday.
🗺️
The Gambia. The Gambia is a river with a country around it, the smallest on mainland Africa, a strip a few dozen kilometres wide running inland along the water. That shape means almost everyone lives near the river or the coast, and it explains why fish, fresh, smoked and dried, appears in dishes that inland West African cooking would build on meat.
🌍
Africa. Africa's fifty-four nations hold cuisines as different as Morocco's slow-cooked tagines and South Africa's open-fire braai, yet shared threads run through them: ancient grains like millet, sorghum, and teff; stews thickened with groundnut, okra, or palm; and fiery condiments from Tunisian harissa to Ethiopian berbere. Staple starches, fufu, injera, ugali, couscous, anchor communal meals often eaten by hand from a shared dish, where hospitality is a point of honor.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from The Gambia
SuperkanjaThe Gambia's rich okra stew with palm oil, smoked fish, and meat, spooned over rice.
TapalapaThe Gambia's daily bread: a crusty, dense baton of mixed millet, maize, and wheat flours, baked in a clay oven and torn open for breakfast.
DomodaThe Gambian groundnut stew: meat simmered in a thick, tangy peanut sauce with tomato and pumpkin, served over rice.
Browse all The Gambia recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan, Food processor.
Storing it: Thickens as it sits. Reheat with extra water or milk to loosen, and keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Chura Gerteh?
The Gambia's thick groundnut-and-rice porridge, faintly oily and nutty, served hot with yoghurt or condensed milk.
Where does Chura Gerteh come from?
Chura Gerteh is a Gambian dish from Banjul, The Gambia.
Can Chura Gerteh be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Chura Gerteh 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 Chura Gerteh 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 Chura Gerteh take to make?
About 40 minutes total (10 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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