Waakye pronounced “WAH-chay”, is a popular Ghanaian dish of cooked rice and beans, commonly eaten for lunch or supper. The rice and beans, usually black eyed peas or cow beans or red kidney beans are cooked together, along with red dried sorghum leaf sheaths or stalks and limestone. The sorghum leaves and limestone give the dish its characteristic flavor and a red appearance. The sorghum is taken out before consumption. The word waakye is from the Nigerian Hausa Language – which means beans. It is the contracted form of the full name shinkafa da wake which means rice and beans, may also be the origin of the rice and beans dishes commonly found in the Caribbean and South America, brought there through slave trade.
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.
Health Benefits
Famously referred to as Ghanaian’s super food, waakye leaves are rich in antioxidants, which protects cells in the body from cardio-vascular diseases, cancer, and diabetes
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waakye
African and Carribean Foods, Imported to Canada
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