The one dish Ghanaians can wake up as early as 8 am to queue for is the ever-famous Waakye, a unique Ghanaian dish of cooked rice and beans.
Here’s how you can prepare a delicious meal of Waakye
Ingredients for Waakye
-2cups of rice
-1 cup of cowpea beans
-2 millet stalks
– Salt
Ingredients for Waakye Stew
Cooking Oil
Tomatoes
Onion, garlic, Ginger
Kpakposhito(pepper)
Beef, Cowhide(wele)
Salt/Seasoning of choice
How to prepare Waakye
-Remove unwanted particle in beans and wash it about twice or thrice. You can soak beans as well as millet stalks in clean water overnight to shorten the cooking time.
The colour of the water containing the soaked millet stalks will change to red. You can use this same water to cook beans to achieve a reddish look for your Waakye.
-Boil beans in a big saucepan and add enough water. Check intermittently, add more water if it drains up and beans is still hard.
-Add washed/soaked millet stalks to the beans on fire and allow to boil for a little while. The beans should not be too soft.
-Remove the millet stalks from the beans before you add the rice.
Add some salt and stir. Allow it to cook which checking intermittently to get your desired texture.
How to prepare Waakye Stew
-Wash Beef and cowhide very well. Season them with a blended mixture of onion, garlic, ginger and add salt or any desired seasoning to taste. Steam on fire for about 15 mins till it gets soft enough for consumption.
-Blend tomatoes and pepper separately and blend some garlic, ginger and onion.
-Slice 1 large onion(optional)
-Pour cooking oil int a saucepan, heat it up and fry sliced onion. Then add mix of garlic, ginger, onion and fry till it turns slightly brown.
-Add blended tomatoes and pepper(kpakposhito), stir and let it cook for about 30 mins.
-Add steamed beef and wele together with stock to the stew, stir and let it simmer for some more minutes.
-Add salt, or seasoning of your choice to taste.
Waakye can be served with a variety of toppings according to your preference. Waakye can be served with shito, meat, fish, eggs, salad, gari, spaghetti, fried plantain, avocado pear.
