Dinner Ideas from 193 Countries — What to Cook Tonight
Stuck on what to cook for dinner? Dinner Ideas brings easy dinner recipes from 193 countries — signature dishes with ingredients, steps, nutrition and pairings.
Countries
193
Cuisines Covered
Meal Times
4 Slots
Breakfast to Snack
Nutrition
100%
Recipes with Nutrition
What’s for Dinner TonightFeatured Dinner Recipes from 193 Countries
Ibiharage is Burundi's beloved fried beans: red kidney beans simmered until creamy, then fried with sweet onion, garlic, tomato and a pinch of chilli. This easy ibiharage recipe makes a hearty, plant-based dinner that costs very little and feeds a whole family. One serving is about 250 g.
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Comfort & Plant Protein
Slow-cooked red kidney beans fried with onion, garlic and tomato — a filling, fibre-rich pot that anchors the Burundian table.
swap_horizPairs Well With Steamed rice or ugali, with fried plantains on the side
Burundi ugali, known locally as bugali, is a smooth, firm maize porridge made from just white maize flour, water and salt. This burundi ugali recipe takes 30 minutes and one pot, and the soft white mound is torn into pieces and used to scoop up beans, greens and stews. One serving is about 260 g.
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Everyday Energy
White maize flour stirred into boiling water until firm — the quiet, filling staple that carries stews, beans and greens.
swap_horizPairs Well With Ibiharage beans, sukuma wiki greens, or any stew
Burundi brochettes are smoky grilled beef skewers, marinated in a peanut, paprika and ginger spice mix and cooked over charcoal until charred at the edges and juicy inside. This authentic burundi brochettes recipe is the street food of Bujumbura evenings — best eaten hot off the grill with friends. One serving is about 200 g.
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High-Protein Grilling
Beef cubes marinated with peanut, paprika and ginger, threaded with onion and pepper, and grilled over charcoal.
swap_horizPairs Well With Fried plantains or chips, kachumbari salad, and a cold drink
Cachupa is Cabo Verde's national dish: hominy corn and beans simmered for hours with pork, chourico, sweet potato, cassava and greens until everything tastes of everything else. This cachupa recipe makes the rich version, cachupa rica, the one cooked for weekends and family gatherings. One serving is about 610 g.
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Comfort & Warmth
Slow-simmered hominy, beans, pork and root vegetables in one filling pot.
swap_horizPairs Well With Crusty bread, fried egg and hot sauce on the side
Pastel de atum is the snack Cabo Verde reaches for at parties, on the street and at family gatherings: a golden, crimped half-moon of fried pastry wrapped around tuna cooked down with onion, garlic, tomato and paprika. This pastel de atum recipe uses ready-made empanada discs, so a batch of 20 is on the table in under an hour. One serving is 2 pastries, about 120 g.
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Quick Snack & Sharing
Crisp fried pastry pockets filled with seasoned tuna, made for sharing.
swap_horizPairs Well With Spicy tomato sauce and a cold drink
Cabo Verde seafood rice is the islands' answer to the Portuguese arroz de marisco: rice cooked until soupy in a tomato and shellfish broth, crowded with prawns, mussels, clams, squid and white fish, and brought to the table still bubbling in its pot. This Cabo Verde seafood rice recipe serves four generously and is built for sharing. One serving is about 700 g.
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Coastal & Fresh
Soupy tomato rice loaded with prawns, mussels, clams, squid and white fish.
swap_horizPairs Well With Crusty bread, lemon wedges and a green salad
This ndole recipe is Cameroon's national stew: bitter leaves washed until gentle, then folded into a thick peanut cream with tender beef, shrimp and ground crayfish. One serving is about 475 g.
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Comfort & Warmth
Washed bitter leaves simmered in a creamy peanut sauce with beef and shrimp.
swap_horizPairs Well With Fried or boiled plantain, white rice and a cold drink
This poulet dg recipe is Cameroon's celebration chicken: bone-in thighs fried golden, ripe plantains fried until caramelised, and everything tossed together in a tomato, carrot and green bean sauce. One serving is about 625 g.
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Comfort & Warmth
Fried chicken and ripe plantain tossed in a tomato sauce with carrots, green beans and peppers.
swap_horizPairs Well With White rice or boiled yam, with a cold drink
This achu soup recipe is the Grassfields classic: cocoyam boiled and pounded into a smooth, stretchy mound, served with a bright yellow soup made by whisking red palm oil with limestone water, plus tender beef, tripe and cow skin. One serving is about 625 g.
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Comfort & Warmth
Pounded cocoyam with a bright yellow palm-oil soup, beef, tripe and cow skin.
swap_horizPairs Well With Pounded cocoyam, with the yellow soup in the well
This kanda central african republic recipe rolls ground beef and toasted pumpkin seeds into generous meatballs, then simmers them in a tomato and chilli sauce until the sauce turns thick and rich. One serving is about 350 g.
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Comfort & Warmth
Beef and pumpkin seed meatballs simmered slowly in a spiced tomato sauce.
swap_horizPairs Well With Plain white rice, sliced onion and a cold drink
This central african fufu recipe boils fresh cassava until tender, then pounds it into a smooth, stretchy dough that is shaped into soft balls. It is the scoop — and the centrepiece — of a Central African lunch. One serving is about 350 g.
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Comfort & Warmth
Smooth, stretchy cassava dough, pounded by hand and shaped into balls for scooping up soup.
swap_horizPairs Well With Okra soup, groundnut stew or any rich Central African soup
This grilled capitaine fish recipe scores whole capitaine, rubs it with garlic, lemon and chilli, and grills it over charcoal until the skin crisps and the flesh flakes. One serving is about 330 g.
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Comfort & Warmth
Whole capitaine scored, marinated and grilled over charcoal, served with onion, tomato and chilli.
swap_horizPairs Well With Onion and tomato relish, fried plantain and cold beer
High Protein
Find Dinner Ideas by Country
Every one of the world's 193 countries has a signature dish — browse the full directory to find tonight's dinner, or jump straight to a cuisine with recipes.
From a market in Bangkok to a farmhouse in Tuscany, cooks reach for the same handful of staples: rice, dried beans, good oil, salt, garlic, chillies and something sour. Stock these, and dinner in any cuisine is suddenly within reach.
When the air turns cool, the garden answers with squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips and beets. Roasted low and slow, these autumn vegetables turn sweet, caramelised and deeply satisfying — here is how to cook them well.
Fresh herbs wilt in days when they are tossed loose into the fridge. The jar method — a little water, a loose bag, and the right shelf — keeps parsley, cilantro, mint and dill bright and fragrant for up to two weeks.
November 5, 2026 • 658 words
Food Pairing Guide
What to Eat With What
Some foods taste better — and do you more good — together. Here is what to serve with each dish, and what to skip, with the science in plain words.
The ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) in freshly squeezed lime converts the non-heme and heme iron from thinly shaved beef into its bioavailable ferrous form (Fe²⁺), escalating iron assimilation by up to 300%. Fresh culantro supplies carotenes that ignite digestive bile acids.
Drinking condensed milk coffee (Cà Phê Sữa Đá) directly following Phở binds active polyphenolic chlorogenic acids and milk casein directly to the beef iron molecules, forming unabsorbable insoluble complexes that severely stunt nutrient uptake. Wait at least 90 minutes.
check_circle EAT TOGETHER: Extra Virgin Olive Oil & Aged Feta
Lycopene is an intrinsically lipophilic (fat-soluble) antioxidant compound bound tight inside tomato skin cells. Pairing ripe heirloom tomatoes with the monounsaturated fats of raw cold-pressed olive oil boosts vascular lycopene absorption by nearly 4.4-fold.
Consuming vine tomatoes with zero-fat or high-sugar artificial vinaigrettes prevents the body from emulsifying fat-soluble Vitamins A, E, and K, passing essential restorative nutrients unabsorbed through the gastrointestinal tract.
Metabolic window: Lunch or Aperitivo • Lycopene Uptake: +440%
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Turmeric + Black Pepper
Piperine in coarse crushed pepper amplifies active curcumin bioavailability by 2000%.
Burundi
1h 30m
Cabo Verde
Cameroon
Central African Republic
Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Andorra
Angola
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Belize
Benin
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Brunei
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Cambodia
Canada
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Comoros
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Republic of the Congo
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czechia
Côte d'Ivoire
Denmark
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Eswatini
Ethiopia
Fiji
Finland
France
Gabon
Gambia
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Grenada
Guatemala
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mexico
Micronesia
Moldova
Monaco
Mongolia
Montenegro
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
North Korea
North Macedonia
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Palau
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russia
Rwanda
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Samoa
San Marino
São Tomé and Príncipe
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Africa
South Korea
South Sudan
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Suriname
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Timor-Leste
Togo
Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Tuvalu
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe
