Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Wagasi in Tomato Sauce
Golden-fried Fulani cheese simmered in a spicy tomato and onion sauce, one of West Africa's rare traditional cheese dishes.
Beninese · easy · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 25 min
~533 cal · 27g protein · 10g carbs · 43g fat · 2g fiber · 5g sugars · 22g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Wagasi, also spelled wagashi, is a soft white cheese made by the Fulani herders of northern Benin from fresh cow's milk, one of the very few traditional cheeses in West Africa. Mild and faintly tangy, it is boiled and then fried until golden, developing a satisfying chewy crust while staying soft inside.
For this dish the fried cheese is folded into a fiery sauce of pounded tomato, onion, garlic and and simmered briefly so it drinks up the flavour. Sold from roadside stalls and cooked in homes across Benin, wagasi is a prized and affordable source of protein, sometimes tinted a rosy pink with a natural dye from stalks.
or make a good stand-in for the cheese where wagasi cannot be found, since both hold their shape in the pan the same way.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
14 oz wagasi cheese (or or ), cubed
3 tbsp , for frying
1 onion, chopped
4 tomatoes, pounded to a paste
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 , blended
to taste salt and pepper
Instructions
1
Rinse the cheese, then simmer it in water for about 10 minutes to firm it up, and drain well.
2
Cut the cheese into bite-sized cubes and fry in the oil, turning, until golden brown all over. Lift out and set aside.
✎ Chef’s note
Let the cheese form a crust before you move it. Turned too early it tears and sticks to the pan.
3
In the same pan soften the onion, then add the garlic, blended scotch bonnet and pounded tomato and cook to a thick sauce, about 10 minutes.
4
Fold the fried cheese back in, season, and simmer 5 minutes so it soaks up the sauce.
5
Serve hot with rice or a mound of pounded yam.
Northern Benin Fulani cooking.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Cotonou. Cotonou is Benin's bustling seaside city, eating amiwo, cornmeal cooked directly in a red tomato and pepper sauce so the starch carries the seasoning. Grilled fish, akassa fermented dough, and fiery pepper sauces come with almost everything.
🗺️
Benin. Vodun's centre is here, in the Fon kingdom of Dahomey in what is now southern Benin, but it spans Togo, Ghana and Nigeria and absorbed a great deal of Yoruba practice, so it is a regional religion with a Beninese heartland. The slave port at Ouidah carried it across the Atlantic to Haiti, Cuba and Brazil, where its descendants are still practised.
🌍
Africa. Africa's fifty-four nations hold cuisines as different as Morocco's slow-cooked tagines and South Africa's open-fire braai, yet shared threads run through them: ancient grains like millet, sorghum, and teff; stews thickened with groundnut, okra, or palm; and fiery condiments from Tunisian harissa to Ethiopian berbere. Staple starches, fufu, injera, ugali, couscous, anchor communal meals often eaten by hand from a shared dish, where hospitality is a point of honor.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Benin
AmiwoCornmeal cooked directly in a spiced red tomato-and-pepper sauce, served with braised chicken.
AbloSoft, slightly sweet steamed rice-and-corn cakes eaten plain or with a spicy sauce for breakfast.
Wassa-WassaSteamed yam-flour couscous tossed with a spiced tomato and onion sauce, a northern Beninese lunch staple.
Browse all Benin recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Fried food is best eaten fresh while crisp. Re-crisp leftovers in a hot oven or air fryer; the microwave makes them soft.
Make it a Benin meal
TchoukoutouDrink
Yovo Doko (Sweet Fritters)Dessert
Wassa-WassaLunch
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Frequently asked questions
What is Wagasi in Tomato Sauce?
Golden-fried Fulani cheese simmered in a spicy tomato and onion sauce, one of West Africa's rare traditional cheese dishes.
Where does Wagasi in Tomato Sauce come from?
Wagasi in Tomato Sauce is a Beninese dish from Cotonou, Benin.
Can Wagasi in Tomato Sauce be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Wagasi in Tomato Sauce recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Wagasi in Tomato Sauce safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Wagasi in Tomato Sauce take to make?
About 40 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 25 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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