Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Ayimolou
A one-pot of rice and beans cooked together and served with a spicy pepper sauce, Togo's breakfast.
Togolese · easy · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 45 min
~669 cal · 19g protein · 125g carbs · 12g fat · 10g fiber · 21g sugars · 2g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Ayimolou is Togo's rice-and-beans, a one-pot of rice and cowpeas (or black-eyed peas) simmered together until tender, sold from big pots at roadside stalls across Lomé from early morning. It is simple, filling street food, spooned into a bowl and crowned with a spiced tomato-and-onion sauce, fried , , or a boiled egg.
A close cousin of Ghana's waakye and Nigeria's rice-and-beans, ayimolou is everyday sustenance, cheap, filling, and endlessly adaptable to whatever toppings a vendor offers. The beans and rice cook down into a soft, savory base that carries the fiery pepper sauce ladled over the top.
Eaten for breakfast or any time of day, ayimolou is the kind of unpretentious plate that fuels students, workers, and market traders across Togo.
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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
1.5 cups rice
1 cup black-eyed peas or cowpeas
3 tomato
1 onion
1-2 chili (for sauce)
3 tbsp red
2 ripe , sliced and fried, to serve
to taste salt
Instructions
1
Soak the black-eyed peas overnight, then boil them until tender, 35 to 40 minutes, and drain.
✎ Chef’s note
Soaking overnight cuts the cooking time considerably. A pinch of potash (akaun) in the water is the traditional West African way to soften them faster still, though it is optional.
2
Soften the chopped onion in the palm oil, stir in the cooked beans, then add the washed rice, water and salt, bring it to a boil, cover, and cook 20 to 25 minutes until the rice is soft and the water is gone. Rest it 5 minutes off the heat.
✎ Chef’s note
Red palm oil, not a neutral one. Its colour and its particular savour are a large part of what ayimolou tastes like, and the same dish is eaten under the same name across Togo, Ghana and Benin.
3
Blend and fry the tomato, onion, and chili into a spicy pepper sauce.
4
Season the rice and beans with salt.
5
Serve topped with the pepper sauce, with fried plantains alongside, and fried fish or grilled chicken if it is a bigger meal.
Lomé tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Lomé. Gboma is not spinach. It is the leaf of Solanum macrocarpon, the African eggplant, and spinach is only the substitute cooks reach for elsewhere. The same dish is called shoko in Ghana and Benin, and akoume, the fermented maize dough it comes with, is also known as to.
🗺️
Togo. Gboma is the leaf of Solanum macrocarpon, the African eggplant, and spinach is a working substitute rather than the same plant; the stew made from it, gboma dessi, is Ghana's and Benin's shoko under another name. The dough beside it is akoume, also called to, the same word used for the millet and sorghum staples further north in the Sahel.
🌍
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 Togo
Gboma DessiA rich Togolese spinach stew simmered with tomato, red palm oil, and beef or fish.
DjenkouméA savory red maize-meal paste cooked with tomato and palm oil, served with grilled chicken, a Togolese celebration favorite.
Galidossi (Gari and Milk Dessert)Crunchy cassava gari soaked in cold sweet milk with roasted peanuts, a refreshing Togolese street dessert.
Browse all Togo recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Blender.
Storing it: Cool leftover rice quickly and refrigerate within an hour. Keep up to 2 days and reheat until piping hot all the way through.
Make it a Togo meal
Galidossi (Gari and Milk Dessert)Dessert
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Frequently asked questions
What is Ayimolou?
A one-pot of rice and beans cooked together and served with a spicy pepper sauce, Togo's breakfast.
Where does Ayimolou come from?
Ayimolou is a Togolese dish from Lomé, Togo.
Can Ayimolou be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Ayimolou 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 Ayimolou 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 Ayimolou take to make?
About 60 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 45 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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