Africa Rice Recipes – WAAKYE - a popular dish from Ghana made with rice and beans

Waakye (pronounced waa-chay) is a popular dish from Ghana made with rice and beans. The dish requires about 15 minutes of preparation and an hour and half of cooking time. Ingredients 2 cups of rice 1 cup of red beans or black-eyed peas or any kind of beans or peas 4 dry sorghum leaves (if you do not have sorghum leaves, you can use 1 teaspoon of baking soda instead.) Salt to taste 10 cups of water Preparation Wash and soak the beans in water for 3-4 hours. Drain the beans and place them in a large pot with water. Bring the mixture to a boil and let it cook for about 45 minutes Wash the sorghum leaves. Cut the leaves into lengths of 3 to 4 inches, toss them in with the boiling beans and allow them to cook together. If sorghum leaves are not available, add a teaspoon of baking soda to give the Waakye its characteristic color. Remove the sorghum leaves from the beans after 5 minutes Wash the rice and add to the beans in the pot, along with more water. Allow the mixture to cook for about 15-20 minutes (or until the beans are tender and rice is cooked and all liquid has been totally absorbed.) Watch out that the mixture does not burn and keep stirring while it cooks Season with salt Serve the dish with pepper sauce, boiled eggs and/or a stew of, fish, chicken, beef or vegetables. Bon appétit! Recipe author : Eugenia Manful,  Ghana Revenue Authority, Accra, Ghana Guests : John Manful, AfricaRice, Benin Jemima, CSIR-Food Research Institute, Accra, Ghana Abimbola Olukemi Sanni, AfricaRice, Benin Seth Graham Acquaah, AfricaRice, Benin Yvette Singbo Dossa, AfricaRice, Benin Podcast credit : Savitri Mohapatra, R.Raman, AfricaRice