Waakye (Ghanaian rice & beans)

Name: Waakye (Ghanaian rice & beans)
Total time: 120 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: International
Ingredients: 2 cups long-grain rice; 1½ cups black-eyed peas, soaked for 4 hours or overnight; 8–10 dried sorghum leaves (waakye leaves); without them the colour will be lighter; water as needed (about 6 cups) and ¼ tsp baking soda (a stand-in for the traditional "kaun", a natural alkali that deepens the colour and softens the beans); 1½ tsp salt; To serve: 4 boiled eggs; fried plantain or kelewele; 200 g boiled spaghetti; ½ cup shito sauce; ½ cup gari (optional); tomato and onion salad

Recipe No.: W-59

InternationalGhanaian120 minServes 6

On city mornings in Ghana, small queues form in front of the waakye sellers, and the dish is handed over in a large leaf or a takeaway box with boiled egg, salad and shito. It is rice and black-eyed peas cooked with dried red sorghum leaf sheaths, which give it its famous reddish-brown colour. The dish is traced to northern Ghana; the name comes from the Dagbani language (a kind of bean), and in Hausa it is called "wake", short for "shinkafa da wake", rice and beans. It then travelled down to the cities of the south until it belonged to everyone. Each person builds their own plate: a little spaghetti, some fried plantain and a spoon of shito.

Ghana (associated with the north) — It spread from northern Ghana to the cities of the south and became a popular breakfast and lunch

Origin of the dish: Ghana (associated with the north) — It spread from northern Ghana to the cities of the south and became a popular breakfast and lunch

Photo: Waakye with kelewele, spaghetti, salad, stew and shito.jpg by Maame1Yaa, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Ingredients for Waakye

2 cupslong-grain rice
1½ cupsblack-eyed peas, soaked for 4 hours or overnight
8–10dried sorghum leaves (waakye leaves); without them the colour will be lighter
water as needed (about 6 cups) and ¼ tsp baking soda (a stand-in for the traditional "kaun", a natural alkali that deepens the colour and softens the beans)
1½ tspsalt
To serve4 boiled eggs
fried plantain or kelewele
200 gboiled spaghetti
½ cupshito sauce
½ cupgari (optional)
tomato and onion salad

Method

Drain the soaked beans and put them in a large pot with the sorghum leaves, the baking soda and 5 cups of water.
Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and cook for 50–60 minutes until the beans are half tender and the water turns reddish.
Wash the rice well and add it to the pot with the salt, adding hot water so the liquid stands about 2 cm above the rice.
Cover and cook over low heat for 25 minutes until the rice is done and has absorbed the liquid.
Remove the leaves and fluff the rice gently.
Serve hot with the eggs, spaghetti, fried plantain, shito and salad.

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