Waakye – Ghanian Rice & Beans – Guest Post – Wakkye is a popular rice and beans street food from Ghana, often had for breakfast.
As you know, this blog is all about highlighting the foods of different cultures around the world. To that end, I have invited Fred from Simply African Meals to share a little bit about his culture.
Waakye is a popular street food in Ghana. Let’s let him tell you about it!
The word alone makes my mouth water , it is a popular street food in Ghana that you’ll see on almost any street corner. I remember sometimes how I’ll have discussions with my friends about how the Waakye at home tasted so different than what was on the street. I will always wake quite early everyday and call up my friends so we can go to Ms Hawowo for our waakye breakfast. I know what you’re thinking, but Fred isn’t that kind of heavy for breakfast? Once we have that for breakfast we’re not going to eat until dinner time.
Waakye, is a Ghanaian favorite dish made out of beans and rice with some spices. Although sometimes it is cooked using spices such as maggi (bouillon cubes) or local green vegetables, this is a simple preparations though just as delicious. The beans used are normally black-eyed peas, some use red or pinto beans. It is usually served with Shitto (West African hot sauce), Gari (ground cassava), Talia (Spaghetti) 🙂 and your choice of a hardboiled egg, meat or fish; some people eat it with all three.
Now that’s a healthy and hearty way to start the day!
Waakye – Ghanian Rice & Beans – Guest Post
Ingredients
- 1 pound of black eyed peas pinto or red kidney beans can also be used
- 5 cups of rice
- 1 tablespoon of baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon of salt
Instructions
- Boil your beans in 5 cups of water for 30 minutes on medium high heat.
- Add rice and 2 cups of water.
- Add baking soda and salt right after your add in the rice and water.
- When it’s boiling, watch it because it may boil over because of the introduction of the baking soda.
- Adjust flame as needed if it boil over.
- Cook the waakye at medium heat with constant stirring every 10 minutes for 30-45 minutes, until the rice is tender.
Nutrition
Isn’t that a fabulous way to celebrate breakfast!!!
Ghana has so much more to offer and let’s take a look at the other Ghanian Recipes I’ve previously presented!
Ghanian Recipes
- Kelewele – Ghana Style Fried Plantain
- Tatale – Sweet Plantain Fritters
- Joloff Rice
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Can the baking soda be skipped? What does it do in the cooking process?
Thank you
I’ve reached out to the guest writer and will get you a response soon.
That is if you can find Waakye leaves, but you’re not going to get the same consistency in color. It’s just plain rice & beans without the baking soda or waakye leaves. You can find waakye leaves at closest African store next to you.
it’s just to get the rich color. So I don’t think it adds to anything flavorwise and can totally be skipped!
You can find a store here: https://www.simpleafricanmeals.com/find-an-african-food-store-near-you/
Question was what is the purpose of the baking soda?
As the gentleman above said, it’s an alternative to the colour changing leave we use to give the dark colour
Thank you now I understand better
Hi there, this is a video that should answer all your questions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4Os2GoDFS8