🥗 STARTER
Salade Togolaise (Togolese Spaghetti Salad)
Crisp lettuce piled with cooked spaghetti, carrots, green beans, beetroot, cucumber, tomato, hard-boiled egg and sardines, all dressed in a creamy mustard and mayonnaise vinaigrette.
Togolese · easy · serves 6
prep 30 min · cook 40 min
~405 cal · 11g protein · 31g carbs · 28g fat · 4g fiber · 6g sugars · 4g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Salade togolaise is the big composed salad of Togo, sold as street food in Lomé, made for family meals and gatherings with friends, and served as a starter or as a light lunch with a piece of French bread. Its signature, and the thing that surprises visitors, is the spaghetti: cooked, cooled and tossed in among the vegetables.
The rest is a riot of colour. There is lettuce, carrot and green beans cooked until just tender, beetroot that stains everything pink, cucumber, tomato and quartered hard-boiled eggs, often with sardines from a tin. It is all brought together with a vinaigrette made creamy with mayonnaise and a spoonful of mustard.
Every cook makes it their own way, with grated raw vegetables instead of cooked ones, with potatoes or with grilled meat, but lettuce, spaghetti, beetroot, carrot and egg are always there. It is a refreshing plate for hot days.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy-, 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 head curly lettuce, washed and torn
- 150 g (5 oz) spaghetti
- 3 medium carrots, sliced
- 220 g (8 oz) green beans, trimmed
- 1 small beetroot, or 1 ready-cooked beetroot
- 4 eggs
- 1 cucumber, sliced
- 2 tomatoes, cut into wedges
- 1 tin (about 125 g) sardines in oil, drained
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 small shallot, finely chopped
- 1 1/2 tsp vinegar
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 3 tbsp mayonnaise
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- to taste salt and black pepper
Instructions
- 1If the beetroot is raw, boil it whole in its skin for 30 to 40 minutes, until a knife slides in easily. Cool, peel and dice it.
- 2Meanwhile break the spaghetti in half and cook it in salted boiling water for about 10 minutes, until tender. Drain, rinse under cold water and drain again.
- 3Boil the carrots and green beans together in salted water for 6 to 8 minutes, until just tender. Drain and cool under cold water.
- 4Boil the eggs for 10 minutes, cool them in cold water, then peel and quarter them.
- 5For the vinaigrette, whisk the garlic, shallot, vinegar, mustard and mayonnaise together, then whisk in the olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
- 6Spread the lettuce on a large platter and drizzle with a little of the vinaigrette. Arrange the spaghetti, carrots, green beans, beetroot, cucumber and tomatoes on top, then the eggs and sardines.✎ Chef’s noteAdd the beetroot last and do not toss it in early, or it will stain the whole salad pink.
- 7Spoon over the rest of the vinaigrette and serve cold, with bread.
Togolese home and street-food tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Lomé. Gboma is not spinach. It is the leaf of Solanum macrocarpon, the African eggplant, and spinach is only the substitute cooks reach for elsewhere. The same dish is called shoko in Ghana and Benin, and akoume, the fermented maize dough it comes with, is also known as to.
🗺️
Togo. Togolese food is West African at heart, pâte (corn or cassava dough) with okra or spinach sauces, grilled fish, and fufu. Palm oil, chili, and groundnut define a small nation's flavorful table.
🌍
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 Togo
Gboma DessiA rich Togolese spinach stew simmered with tomato, red palm oil, and beef or fish.
AyimolouA one-pot of rice and beans cooked together and served with a spicy pepper sauce, Togo's breakfast.
DjenkouméA savory red maize-meal paste cooked with tomato and palm oil, served with grilled chicken, a Togolese celebration favorite.
Browse all Togo recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Whisk.
Storing it: Best fresh. Leftovers keep 2 days refrigerated; loosen with a splash of water or oil as you reheat so they do not clump.
Make it a Togo meal
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Salade Togolaise (Togolese Spaghetti Salad)?
Crisp lettuce piled with cooked spaghetti, carrots, green beans, beetroot, cucumber, tomato, hard-boiled egg and sardines, all dressed in a creamy mustard and mayonnaise vinaigrette.
Where does Salade Togolaise (Togolese Spaghetti Salad) come from?
Salade Togolaise (Togolese Spaghetti Salad) is a Togolese dish from Lomé, Togo.
Can Salade Togolaise (Togolese Spaghetti Salad) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Salade Togolaise (Togolese Spaghetti Salad) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Salade Togolaise (Togolese Spaghetti Salad) 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 still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), 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 Salade Togolaise (Togolese Spaghetti Salad) take to make?
About 70 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 40 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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