Beans offer a variety of ways to get creative. This incomplete list would help someone escape the monotony of having a particular bean meal.
- Plain boiled beans is simply boiled with salt to taste. It is mostly eaten with rice and tomato stew, or simply with the stew.
- Bean porridge is boiled with spice and palm oil. The porridge can be eaten with akamu (pap) soaked garri, rice and boiled or fried yam, potato or plantain. There seems to be something different about placing these carbs neatly beside the beans.
- A mixed combination of beans with yam, sweet potatoes or plantain. Because beans take longer to cook, remember to put the carbs when the beans are almost done.
- Jollof beans with rice is great and would make a smart way to encourage picky kids to eat.
- Moi moi is prepared by blending soaked beans whose coats have been removed. The paste of a blended mixture of beans, onions and pepper is spices and boiled in wraps. Some people add in addition to fish, eggs. But a combination of moi moi (beans), fish and eggs might just be too high in protein. Moi moi can be enjoyed alone or with akamu, custard, garri, and rice.
- Akara– in this case, the spiced bean paste is thicker and fried in deep hot oil. It goes well with pap, custard, and bread.
- The gbegiri, which goes with ewedu, is more like a nutritious meal of soups. The dish is prepared by boiling the beans till they are soft, then mashing them. The mashed beans is then mixed with palm oil, fish, and spices and stirred for about 5 minutes over heat till the ingredients blend. It is eaten with ewedu, a green soup prepared from ewedu leaves, and tomato stew which accompanies the meat. Quite colorful.
- Though beans with corn is easy to prepare, it is not very common. When cooking with raw corn, boil both beans and corn together, at the same time.
- This unconventional menu of beans with fresh vegetables– cabbage, carrots, tomatoes and green pepper could prompt a raised brow but try it. Cook the beans plain and spiced, and use vegetable oil instead (so palm oil doesn’t hide the vegetables). You can mix the vegetables with the beans or steam separately and place on the meal.
- Please let us know your unique bean recipe!
Tip: Beans is tastier when cooked in a pressure cooker because the beans get soft and imbibes in more spice. However, when there’s no pressure cooker, soaking it for longer periods will suffice.