Tilapia served with maize paste like bugali
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Tilapia with bugali

Grilled or pan-fried tilapia served with bugali — lake fish + maize paste duo common in Kivu and around the great lakes.

Category
Main
Prep
20 min
Cook
30 min
Serves
4 people
Level
easy
Photo · Paul Masua — Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
4

Ingredients

  • 2 whole tilapia (about 800 g–1 kg total), gutted
  • Juice of 2 lemons
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • Salt, pepper, pili-pili
  • 1 onion, sliced into rings
  • Bugali to serve (see bugali page)

Method

  1. 01 Score the tilapia; rub with lemon, garlic, salt, pepper and chili. Rest 15 minutes.
  2. 02 Oil and grill or pan-fry 8–12 minutes per side depending on thickness.
  3. 03 Quickly fry onion rings separately, optional.
  4. 04 Make the bugali while the fish cooks.
  5. 05 Serve the fish on or beside the bugali, onions and lemon on the side.

Tilapia + bugali: a lakeside plate when the market has fresh fish. Less “long sauce” than [fish moambe](/en/recettes/poisson-moambe/); more direct than [ndagala](/en/recettes/ndagala-tomates/). For the paste alone: [bugali](/en/recettes/bugali-kivu/).

In the same spirit

Other recipes close by territory or by gesture.

  • Bugali

    North Kivu & South Kivu

    Bugali recipe: maize flour worked with hot water into a firm paste — staple side in Kivu (cousin of Katanga bukari and East African ugali).

    5 min prep · 20 min cook

  • Grilled Lake Kivu fish

    North Kivu & South Kivu

    Grilled Lake Kivu fish recipe: whole lake fish marinated with aromatics then grilled until the skin is smoky — Eastern grillade, distinct from Kinkole river braise.

    25 min + 1 h marinade prep · 30 min cook