Nutrition
‘Kpokpoi’
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‘Kpokpoi’ is a traditional meal of the Gas during their annual Homowo festival.
It is prepared with primary ingredients of steamed and fermented cornmeal, palmnut oil and okro.
Ms Alberta Dede Kuma Tackey, Chief Executive Officer of Tackey’s Kitchen takes readers through how ‘Kpokpoi’ is prepared.
Ingredients
– 1 kilogram of maize
– 2 kilogram of palm nut
– 5 fingers of okro
– 5 large fresh tomatoes
– 5 large smoked fish (salmon)
– 7 large fresh pepper
– 2 small ginger
– 2 garlic
-salt
Preparation of Palmnut soup
– Wash palm nuts and boil it for about 50 minutes.
– When ready pour the boiled nuts into a mortar and pound until the nuts look fibrous and the black kernels are loose.
-Pour the mixture into a large bowl and add water (Use your hand to take the fibre part of the mixture until you get liquid free of fibre and kernels. (Use a colander to separate the juice from the fibre)
– Wash fish with clean water and put it on fire.
– Blend ginger, onion, pepper, garlic and add to fish.
– Add salt and steam the mixture for about 4-6 minutes.
-Wash fresh tomatoes and add it to the steaming pot.
– Proceed with pouring the palm nut solution over the steaming pot with fish, and others.
– Blend steamed tomato and add to the mixture
– Stir and leave soup to cook for some time (Stirring thoroughly and carefully to prevent the dry fish from breaking into pieces).
Corn for ‘Kpokpoi’
-Remove any bad grain or stones from maize. (Soak corn overnight or three days)
– Wash in clean water and grind into smooth flour.
– Sprinkle water on the ground maize and leave it for some time.
– Pour the corn flour into a bowl and flake with your hands to make flour smooth. (You can also sieve the milled corn on a wooden mat)
-Fill a saucepan with water to about halfway and place a clay pot steamer or any utensil that has little bits of holes in them that steam can pass through.
– When the water starts boiling sprinkle corn flour in sieve.
– Cover tightly and leave to steam for about 15 minutes.
– When ready, fetch red oil and mix with the steamed corn to get the yellowish colour.
-Also prepare salt water which will be sprinkled onto the steam corn flour before pounding and set aside.
– Pour yellowish mixture into mortar, sprinkle a little bit of salt water, palm oil onto it and start pounding.
– Pour out into a bowl. You can choose to add cooked okro to it.
-Sieve the pounded ‘kpokpoi’ using the wooden sieve. This makes it finer and separates the rough clumps from the others.
-Serve with your already cooked palm-nut soup.
By Linda Abrefi Wadie
Ingredients
-Cocoyam leaves (Nkontomire)
-Palm oil
-Ripped Plantain
-2 Large smoked salmon
-1 cowhide (wele)
-1 cup of Egusi
– Momoni
-3 fresh eggs
-2 large onions
-2 large tomatoes
-Pepper
-Ginger
-Garlic
Method
-Wash cocoyam leaves thoroughly under running water
-Cut cocoyam leaves into stripes and wash for the second time
-Blend tomatoes, onion, pepper, ginger, and garlic together
-Put sauce pan on fire and heat palm oil
-Add blended ingredients and allow to cook for about 5 minutes
– Wash salmon, wele and cut into cubes and add to stew
-Add salt
-Add eggs to egusi in a bowl to form paste and add it to stew
-Add to stew and allow to simmer for seven minutes
-Add cocoyam leaves to stew and allow it to cook for sometime
-Wash, peel plantain and cut into shapes
-Cook for some time (Pour water out and serve with stew)
By Linda Abrefi Wadie
Every year, Ghana produces thousands of tonnes of nutritious food but a significant share of it never reaches a plate. Fruit spoils before it’s sold. Vegetables rot in transit. Grains are ruined by poor storage. Conversations about nutrition often focus on growing more food but reducing what’s lost or wasted after harvest may be one of the fastest ways to improve food security and nutrition, without farming a single extra acre.
The cost of losing nutritious food
Fresh fruit and vegetables spoil the fastest, and without adequate storage, cooling, or transport, farmers are often forced to sell at rock-bottom prices or watch their harvest go to waste. That squeezes farmers’ incomes and shrinks the supply of nutritious food reaching local markets. As supply falls, prices rise, pushing healthy food further out of reach for the low-income households that need it most.
Nutrition begins beyond the farm gate
Cutting post-harvest losses means more nutritious food reaches families without needing more farmland or higher yields. When tomatoes, mangoes, and leafy greens are preserved through better storage, drying, or processing, they stay available and affordable for longer. Better handling also protects nutritional quality itself, so the vitamins and minerals in food aren’t lost before it ever reaches a consumer.
Supporting farmers supports nutrition
Many farmers still lack access to storage facilities, cold chains, processing equipment, and reliable transport. Strengthening these systems is a win on both ends: farmers earn more from what they grow, and households gain more affordable access to nutritious food. Local processing, such as turning surplus fruit into juices, dried fruit, or purees, can extend shelf life and cut waste even further.
What needs to change?
Reducing food loss takes coordinated action:
• Government: invest in rural roads, storage infrastructure, irrigation, and agricultural extension services.
• Private sector: expand cold storage, food processing, and distribution networks.
• Research institutions: keep developing better post-harvest preservation technology.
• Consumers: plan meals, store food properly, and make safe use of leftovers.
Looking ahead
As Ghana works to tackle malnutrition in all its forms, cutting food loss deserves a place at the top of the agenda. Growing more food matters, but making sure the food already grown actually reaches families, safely and affordably, matters just as much.
Every basket of tomatoes saved, every crate of mangoes preserved, and every bag of grain protected from spoilage adds up to better nutrition, stronger livelihoods, and a more resilient food system for the future.
Feature article by Women, Media and Change under its Nourish Ghana: Advocating for Increased Leadership to Combat Malnutrition project
