Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Maasa
Malian pancake-doughnuts: lightly fermented rice-and-millet batter fried into golden puffs and dusted with sugar, sold hot from roadside pans.
Malian · medium · serves 6
prep 20 min · cook 20 min
~198 cal · 4g protein · 43g carbs · 1g fat · 2g fiber · 6g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Maasa are Mali's little pancake-doughnuts, a lightly batter of rice and flours fried in shallow oil until golden and puffed, then dusted with sugar. Fried fresh at roadside stands each morning, they are one of the Sahel's great street breakfasts.
Rice and are the two staple grains of the region, and letting the batter gives maasa a gentle tang that balances the sweetness, somewhere between a doughnut, a pancake, and a fritter. They are naturally gluten-free, soft in the middle and crisp at the edges.
Warm and sugar-dusted, eaten out of hand with sweet tea, maasa are cheerful, everyday food in Bamako and across Mali, the kind of hot, just-fried treat that draws a small crowd to the vendor's pan at dawn.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg-, nut- 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 6
1.5 cups rice flour
1/2 cup flour
3 tbsp sugar (plus extra for dusting)
1 tsp instant yeast
a pinch a pinch of salt
as needed warm water
for frying , for frying
Instructions
1
Whisk the rice and millet flours, sugar, yeast, and salt with enough warm water to make a thick, smooth, pourable batter.
2
Cover and leave in a warm place until bubbly and slightly risen, about 1 hour.
3
Heat about 1 inch of oil in a pan over medium heat until a drop of batter sizzles at once.
4
Fry heaped spoonfuls in batches, turning, until puffed and deep golden, then drain and dust with sugar; serve warm.
Bamako roadside vendors.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Bamako. Bamako sits on the Niger and simmers tigadegena, a groundnut stew cooked slowly with tomato and meat, poured over rice or millet to. Malian cooking uses millet and sorghum porridges, smoked fish from the river, and hibiscus and ginger drinks alongside.
🗺️
Mali. Mali calls its peanut stew tigadegena, and it is not quite the Senegalese maafe it is usually conflated with: the Malian version is traditionally thinner and made with unrefined shea butter, and it goes over rice or millet rather than rice alone. Getting the two apart matters, because the same nut behaves differently in each pot.
🌍
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 Mali
MaafeA rich West African groundnut stew of peanut butter, tomato, and root vegetables simmered around tender meat.
FakoyeA slippery jute-leaf sauce with meat and smoked fish, served over rice or with tô, a Malian and Sahelian favorite.
MoniMali's millet porridge of tiny hand-rolled flour pearls simmered in tamarind-soured water and sweetened, eaten at breakfast and Ramadan.
Browse all Mali recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Whisk.
Storing it: Fried food is best eaten fresh while crisp. Re-crisp leftovers in a hot oven or air fryer; the microwave makes them soft.
Make it a Mali meal
DèguèDrink
Meni-Meniyong (Sesame and Honey Brittle)Dessert
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Frequently asked questions
What is Maasa?
Malian pancake-doughnuts: lightly fermented rice-and-millet batter fried into golden puffs and dusted with sugar, sold hot from roadside pans.
Where does Maasa come from?
Maasa is a Malian dish from Bamako, Mali.
Can Maasa be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Maasa 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 Maasa 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 Maasa take to make?
About 40 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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