Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Tô with Okra Sauce
A smooth, firm millet paste eaten with a slippery okra and tomato sauce, the daily staple lunch of Burkina Faso.
Burkinabè · medium · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 30 min
~428 cal · 14g protein · 80g carbs · 9g fat · 13g fiber · 7g sugars · 1g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Tô is the food that anchors nearly every table in Burkina Faso, a firm porridge of or flour cooked and stirred until it turns into a smooth, elastic paste. It is not eaten alone but torn off in pieces and dipped, a vehicle for the sauces that give each meal its character. Cheap, filling, and made from the grains that grow across the Sahel, it is the definition of everyday sustenance.
The classic partner is a sauce gombo, cooked down with tomato and onion until it turns glossy and slippery, the texture Burkinabè cooks prize for how it clings to the tô. A little , the pungent locust bean that is the region's great seasoning, gives it savory depth. Together they make a plain, filling plate eaten across Burkina Faso.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg-, nut- 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
2 cups or flour
3 cups , sliced
3 tomatoes, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 tbsp ( locust bean) or a pinch of
2 tbsp oil
Instructions
1
Bring a pot of water to a simmer and whisk in a small amount of the flour to make a loose slurry.
2
Add the rest of the flour a little at a time, stirring hard with a sturdy spoon, until the paste pulls away from the sides and turns smooth and firm.
✎ Chef’s note
Stir continuously and add the flour gradually; dumping it in at once gives you lumps that never smooth out.
3
Turn the tô out into a bowl, wet your hands, and shape it into a smooth mound; keep it covered so it stays soft.
4
For the sauce, soften the onion and tomato in the oil, then add the okra and soumbala with a cup of water.
5
Simmer until the okra is tender and the sauce turns glossy and thick, about 15 minutes, and season with salt.
6
Serve the tô with the okra sauce alongside, tearing off pieces to scoop it up.
Burkinabè home cooking.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Ouagadougou. Riz gras belongs to the same family as jollof and Senegalese ceebu jen, and Benin, Ivory Coast, Togo and Guinea all make their own, so it is not Burkinabe alone. In the city it is celebration food, cooked in a wide pot for a crowd rather than for a single household.
🗺️
Burkina Faso. Riz gras is not Burkina Faso's alone. It sits in the same family as jollof and Senegalese ceebu jen and is eaten across Benin, Ivory Coast, Togo and Guinea, rice cooked in a tomato and oil base until it takes the colour. What is distinctly Burkinabe is zoom koom, the millet-flour welcome drink with ginger and tamarind, offered to a visitor before anything else.
🌍
Africa. The structure repeats across most of the continent: one starch and one sauce. A grain or root is cooked stiff, torn or rolled by hand, and used to carry a stew of leaves, groundnut, okra or fish, usually from a shared bowl and with the right hand. UNESCO listings have followed that logic, inscribing couscous in 2020 as a shared Maghreb tradition and Ivorian attieke in 2024.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Burkina Faso
Riz GrasBurkina Faso's "fat rice": rice simmered in a rich tomato-and-meat broth until every grain is stained red.
MassaLittle fermented millet fritters, crisp and tangy, sold hot with a spicy or sweet topping in Burkina Faso.
Gapal (Millet and Milk Dessert)Fine millet blended with tangy yogurt, baobab and ginger into a thick, cool spooning dessert, a Fulani speciality.
Browse all Burkina Faso recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan, Whisk.
Storing it: Thickens as it sits. Reheat with extra water or milk to loosen, and keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated.
Make it a Burkina Faso meal
Zoom KoomDrink
Gapal (Millet and Milk Dessert)Dessert
Poulet BicycletteDinner
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Frequently asked questions
What is Tô with Okra Sauce?
A smooth, firm millet paste eaten with a slippery okra and tomato sauce, the daily staple lunch of Burkina Faso.
Where does Tô with Okra Sauce come from?
Tô with Okra Sauce is a Burkinabè dish from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
Can Tô with Okra Sauce be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Tô with Okra 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 Tô with Okra 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 Tô with Okra Sauce take to make?
About 45 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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