An all-time Ghanaian favourite, waakye is made from black-eyed peas and rice. It is often eaten with a dazzling variety of additions like gari, spaghetti, a boiled egg avocado and many more. Waakye can be eaten any time of the day and it makes for a filling breakfast, lunch, or dinner option.
Waakye gets its beautiful deep (sometimes light) purple hue from the leaves of the sorghum plant, sometimes referred to as millet leaves and also known locally as waakye leaves. Depending on how long you soak the leaves in water, will determine how deeply coloured your waakye will end up.
Waakye is commonly sold by the roadside, as are many other Ghanaian favourites, like kenkey and it is fairly easy to find a spot that sells it. For a lot of people, this is a perfect way to start the day. What makes waakye pretty special is all the extras you can add - basically you can customise it according to your taste.
Ingredients
To make waakye you need, black-eyed peas, rice and sorghum leaves. The sorghum leaves lend waakye the beautiful purple colour and add to the authenticity of the dish.
- sorghum leaves, also known as waakye leaves
- black-eyed peas/ beans
- rice
Instructions
The sorghum leaves are soaked in some hot water to get their colour out. If you are looking for a deep purple colour then it's best to leave them to soak overnight. In this recipe, I soaked the leaves for a few minutes in water, before cooking the beans in the water.
Once the beans are about halfway cooked, the washed rice is added and cooked until soft.
Substitutions
These are a few substitutions you can make when cooking waakye.
- Red Cowpeas - you can replace black-eyed peas with red cowpeas.
- Brown Rice - you can use brown rice instead of white polished rice. Brown rice has more nutrients than white rice so substituting this is a good option.
- Baking Powder - If you do not have sorghum leaves, baking powder will shorten the cooking time for the peas but also add some colour to the final waakye dish.
- Salt Petre - You can add salt petre to your waakye while cooking it. Just like baking powder or soaking the black-eyed peas overnight, it helps in speeding up the cooking process for the black-eyed peas. It also deepens the colour of the finished waakye.
Additions
Waakye is eaten with a variety of additions and these are just a few.
- Gari - The gari is dampened and a little bit of oil from the stew is mixed with it, to give it a glorious orange colour. If your stew barely has any oil, you can use some of the stew. Gari Foto in itself is an entire meal on its own.
- Spaghetti - Just like the gari, the spaghetti is cooked, drained and then a bit of the oil from the stew (or the stew) is mixed with it.
- Avocado - Cut up some avocado and add that to the waakye.
- Fried Fish - If you aren't a fan of beef but love fish then fried fish is an excellent addition.
- Fried Ripe Plantain - This a fantastic addition and adds that sweet component which goes well with this mainly savoury dish.
Storage
If you make a large batch of waakye you can portion it, and freeze it for later use. Portioning prevents reheating the portions you have already reheated.
Before reheating, let it thaw completely, and heat it in the microwave. If you do not have a microwave, place the waakye in a pot, sprinkle some water over it and let it steam over very low heat.
Tip
If you want a deep purple colour, then soak the sorghum leaves overnight and cook the leaves together with the rice and the black-eyed peas and add some kanwu/ kawe (saltpetre). Once cooked, you can take out the leaves and discard them.
The waakye in the photo below shows the different shades. Depending on how many sorghum leaves you use, the waakye will either turn out lighter or darker. (The portions were taken out of the freezer - so no, its not mould).
Waakye Recipe
Ingredients
- 400 grams rice
- 400 grams black-eyed peas
- 5 sorghum leaves
- salt
- 1.6 litres water approximately
Instructions
- Boil water and soak sorghum leaves in it for about 20 minutes.
- Rinse black-eyed peas, and put them in a large pot. Add water from sorghum leaves and cook for about 25 minutes or until black-eyed peas are almost cooked. They should resist slightly when you try to squeeze them between your fingers. See note 1.
- Rinse the rice and add to the pot with some salt to taste.
- Once the water has almost evaporated, turn down the heat to very low and cover with aluminium foil and a lid.
- Carefully stir, once or twice to ensure that the rice is uniformly mixed with the black-eyed peas.
- Remove from heat once the rice grains are cooked.
- Serve hot with waakye stew and all the trimmings (spaghetti, gari, salad, shito, a boiled egg, etc.)
Video
Notes
- You can also add some of the sorghum leaves to your beans while they cook, This will give your end resulting waakye a deeper purple colour.
- Your cook time for the black-eyed peas will vary greatly, depending on how dry the black-eyed peas are, the type of peas, or whether they have been soaked overnight. Cook them for about 30 minutes and then squash them between your fingers to see if they are soft. They should resist slightly as they will still cook when the rice is added.
- About a quarter of a teaspoon of baking powder or a small piece of kawe/kanwe (saltpetre) can speed up the cooking process for the black eyed-peas.
- For this recipe, a ratio of 1 part black-eyed peas to 1 part of rice to 4 parts of water was used.
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