🧀 Wagasi

Wagasi is a soft fresh cheese from West Africa made from cow’s milk, a traditional product of Fulani herders. The milk is warmed and curdled with a plant coagulant: the juice or leaves of local plants are added (Calotropis is most often named; other accounts mention other plants or acidic substances). The curd is lifted out, shaped into small round cheeses, boiled and often coloured red on the outside with a plant dye.

Wagasi is especially common in northern Benin and is sold in abundance in the city of Parakou; it is also found in other countries of the savanna belt — Niger, Nigeria, Ghana (where it is called wagashi) and Togo. In different languages it is called wara, warakashi, amo or gasaru.

Wagasi is soft in texture and mild in taste, slightly salty. Like many protein foods of the local cuisine, it is usually fried or stewed in a sauce and eaten with pounded yam or a porridge of millet and maize. It differs from feta and brynza in not being aged in brine and in being curdled with a plant coagulant rather than rennet; from queso fresco, in the way it is curdled and then boiled.