Waakye Explained

Waakye
Alternate Name:Wakey
Country: Ghana[1]
Creator:Zongo people of Ghana
Type:Rice
Served:mostly hot
Main Ingredient:beans and rice

Waakye [2] or Awaakye is a Ghanaian dish of cooked rice and beans, commonly eaten for breakfast or lunch.[3] However, others eat it for supper. The rice and beans, usually black eyed peas or cow beans, are cooked together, along with red dried sorghum leaf sheaths or stalks and limestone.[4] The sorghum leaves and limestone give the dish its characteristic flavor and a red appearance and the sorghum is taken out before consumption. The word waakye is from the Hausa language and means beans. It is the contracted form of the full name shinkafa da wake which means rice and beans.[5]

Waakye is commonly sold by roadside vendors. It is then commonly wrapped in banana leaf and accompanied by one or more of Wele stew, boiled chicken eggs, garri, shito, vegetable salad of cabbage, onions and tomatoes, spaghetti (which is called talia in Ghana) or fried plantain.[4] [6]

History

The dish, which originated from the Hausa settlers in the Zongo communities of Ghana, may be the origin of the rice and beans dishes commonly found in the Caribbean and South America, brought there through slave trade.[4]

Preparation

Waakye is usually prepared by first boiling the beans together with dried millet stalk leaves for the beans to get softer and reddish before adding rice to it on fire.[7]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Waakye: A popular dish from Ghana made with rice and beans. irri.org. 30 August 2013.
  2. News: January 23, 2020. Waakye - An Everyday Ghanaian meal. Breakfast Daily.
  3. Web site: A Brief History of Waakye, Ghana's Favourite Breakfast. Adam. Hakeem. Culture Trip. 2019-03-05.
  4. Web site: All You Need to Know About Waakye. Muyambo. Freda. 16 August 2018. The Spruce Eats. dotdash.
  5. Web site: Ghana: Waakye. 2013-01-08. 196 flavors. en-US. 2020-06-01.
  6. Web site: Waakye: The dish with loyal patrons . Appiah-Adjei . Salomey . 2019-05-31 . www.graphic.com.gh . 2019-06-02.
  7. Web site: 2017-10-05. Homemade waakye. 2020-09-12. biscuits and ladles. en-GB.