Ghanaian Waakye with Black-Eyed Peas, Sorghum-Stained Rice, Shito and Boiled Egg

Make the shito ahead (this paste keeps months and improves with age): heat the oil in a heavy pot. Sweat the onions slowly 15 minutes until deep amber. Add garlic and ginger, cook 2 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and cook out 5 minutes until the oil separates. Add chilli powder, cloves, nutmeg, shrimp and tilapia powders, and bouillon. Cook on the lowest heat 45-60 minutes, stirring often, until the paste is glossy mahogany-black and the oil pools on top. Salt to taste. Cool and bottle in a sterile jar.

Ingredients

• For the waakye base (serves 6):
• 300g (1.5 cups) dried black-eyed peas (or red cowpeas), soaked overnight
• 400g (2 cups) long-grain parboiled rice, rinsed until water runs clear
• 8-10 dried sorghum stalk leaves (waakye leaves) — substitute 1 tbsp baking soda + 2 dried hibiscus flowers for the red color
• 1 tbsp fine sea salt
• 1.5 litres water
• 1 tsp ground white pepper
• For the shito (Ghanaian black pepper sauce — make ahead):
• 180ml (3/4 cup) neutral oil
• 3 large red onions, finely diced
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• Thumb fresh ginger, grated
• 150g (5 oz) dried shrimp powder
• 2 tbsp dried tilapia powder (substitute extra shrimp)
• 6 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tbsp ground dried chilli (a Ghanaian blend or African Bird's Eye)
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tbsp shrimp bouillon powder
• Salt to taste
• For finishing:
• 6 large eggs, hard-boiled and peeled
• 2 ripe sweet plantains, sliced and pan-fried in coconut oil
• 200g (7 oz) cooked spaghetti (talia — optional, traditional)
• Shredded iceberg lettuce, sliced tomato, diced cucumber
• Gari (toasted cassava granules) for sprinkling
• Lime wedges

Instructions

1. Make the shito ahead (this paste keeps months and improves with age): heat the oil in a heavy pot. Sweat the onions slowly 15 minutes until deep amber. Add garlic and ginger, cook 2 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and cook out 5 minutes until the oil separates. Add chilli powder, cloves, nutmeg, shrimp and tilapia powders, and bouillon. Cook on the lowest heat 45-60 minutes, stirring often, until the paste is glossy mahogany-black and the oil pools on top. Salt to taste. Cool and bottle in a sterile jar.
2. Cook the beans: drain the soaked black-eyed peas. Place in a pot with 1.5 litres water and the waakye leaves (or baking soda + hibiscus). Bring to a boil and simmer 35-45 minutes until the beans are tender but still hold their shape and the water has stained a deep rust-red. Do not drain.
3. Add the rice directly to the pot of beans and their cooking liquid — the liquid should sit 2 cm above the rice. Top up with hot water if needed. Add salt and white pepper. Bring back to a boil, then reduce to the lowest possible heat and cover tightly. Cook 18-20 minutes until the rice has absorbed all liquid and the grains have turned ruddy-pink from the sorghum or hibiscus.
4. Off the heat, rest the waakye covered 10 minutes, then fluff gently with a wooden paddle. The beans should be soft, the rice tender, the colour uniformly russet.
5. Pan-fry the plantain: in a separate pan, fry the sliced sweet plantains in coconut oil 2 minutes per side until caramelised gold.
6. Build each plate the Accra chop bar way: place a banana leaf or a sheet of brown paper on the plate. Mound a generous scoop of waakye in the centre. Spoon the cooked spaghetti to one side (if using). Add fried plantain to the other side. Lay shredded lettuce, sliced tomato and cucumber over the top.
7. Sit a peeled hard-boiled egg in the centre, like a crown. Spoon a glossy black tablespoon of shito beside the egg — diners will mix it in to taste.
8. Sprinkle a small handful of toasted gari granules over the whole plate for crunch.
9. Serve with lime wedges and a chilled Star or Club beer. Eat with the right hand only, mixing each spoonful with a fingertip-sized smear of shito for the perfect heat.
10. Waakye (pronounced 'waa-chay') is the breakfast-into-lunch national dish of Ghana, sold by waakye sellers wrapped in fresh banana or sorghum leaves at chop bars across Accra, Kumasi and Tamale every morning. The dish's signature deep red colour comes from dried sorghum (millet) leaves boiled with the beans — a technique invented by the Hausa and Dagomba peoples of northern Ghana centuries ago, then carried south to the Greater Accra region. The full waakye plate is one of West Africa's great composed dishes: the earthy rice-and-bean base, the silky boiled egg, the smoky-sweet plantain, the umami-deep shito sauce that takes a Ghanaian grandmother hours to perfect, and the toasted gari crunch on top. In 2021, the BBC named Auntie Muni's waakye in Accra one of the world's 50 best street foods. Shito itself — fermented for weeks in some households — is so iconic that Ghanaian students studying abroad smuggle jars in their suitcases the way Italians carry parmigiano. Waakye is also Ghana's preferred Saturday morning hangover cure.