Ghana's iconic burgundy rice-and-beans tinted with sorghum leaves, served with stew, shito, gari, and fried plantain.
Waakye (pronounced 'WAH-chey') is northern Ghana's gift to West African cooking and one of the country's most beloved street breakfasts. Rice and black-eyed peas (or cowpeas) are cooked together with dried sorghum or millet leaves — locally called 'waakye leaves' — which release a rich burgundy-purple color and a faintly earthy flavor. The plate, served on a banana leaf or wax paper, is built around the rice: spicy tomato stew (usually with goat, beef, or fish), shito (Ghana's smoky pepper sauce), boiled egg, fried sweet plantain (kelewele or aboboi), gari (toasted cassava flakes for crunch), and shredded raw spaghetti or salad. The orchestration of textures and temperatures — soft, hot, sour, crunchy, sweet, fiery — is what makes a great plate of waakye.
Serves 6
Drain soaked beans. Combine with water and waakye leaves in a heavy pot. (If using substitute: omit baking soda for now; add hibiscus tied in cheesecloth.) Bring to a boil, then simmer 35 minutes until beans are al dente.
Stir in salt and rice. Top up water if needed so rice is barely submerged. Cover; cook over low heat 18–20 minutes until rice is tender and most liquid is absorbed. (If using baking soda substitute, add a pinch now for color.)
Remove from heat. The rice and beans should be a deep dusky purple. Fluff with a fork. Cover and let steam 10 minutes.
Season beef with salt; sear in palm oil 5 minutes. Remove. Sauté onion 4 minutes; add garlic, ginger, scotch bonnet; cook 1 minute. Add blended tomato, paste, coriander, white pepper; reduce 8 minutes until thick and dark.
Return beef with 200ml water. Simmer 35–40 minutes until beef is tender and sauce is glossy and reduced.
On each plate: a scoop of waakye rice, a ladle of stew with a chunk of meat, half a boiled egg, two fried plantain slices.
Sprinkle gari over the rice for crunch. Spoon shito on the side — start small, this stuff is potent. Eat with hands or fork, mixing as you go.
Authentic waakye leaves are sold at West African groceries — they're the only way to get the proper burgundy color. The hibiscus + baking soda combination is the best stand-in.
Use parboiled rice (not basmati) — it stays separate and absorbs the bean liquor evenly, which basmati won't.
Don't skip the gari topping — its crunch is essential to the dish's signature texture contrast.
Vegetarian waakye: skip beef stew; use a hearty mushroom-and-spinach stew with palm oil.
With fish: substitute fried smoked mackerel or tilapia for the beef.
Serve with talia (raw shredded spaghetti) instead of gari for the Accra street-vendor style.
Rice and beans refrigerate 3 days; reheat with a splash of water in a covered pan. Stew keeps 4 days and improves overnight. Shito keeps months refrigerated.
Waakye originated in Hausa-speaking northern Ghana and northern Nigeria, where the name comes from the Hausa words 'shinkafa da wake' (rice and beans). It spread to Accra in the 20th century and became a national street breakfast.
They are the dried red sorghum or millet leaves (specifically Sorghum bicolor leaves) that release a deep burgundy color and faint earthy flavor when boiled. There's no exact substitute — dried hibiscus plus a pinch of baking soda gets you closest.
Shito is Ghana's signature black pepper sauce, made from dried fish, prawns, ginger, garlic, chilies, and oil cooked slowly to a dark paste. It's intense, smoky, and very spicy — use sparingly until you know your tolerance.
You can, but the bean liquor that flavors and colors the rice is lost. If using canned, boil the empty rice with 50% bean cooking liquid (or a stock cube) plus the hibiscus/baking soda combination.
Traditionally yes — vendors sell it from early morning through about noon. By lunchtime most stands are sold out. It's heavy enough to be lunch, but in Ghana it's culturally a morning food.
Per serving (520g / 18.3 oz) · 6 servings total
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