Red Red (African Stewed Black-eyed peas)
Red Red Recipe- A hearty tasty and no fuss vegetarian black-eyed peas stewed beans- African Style
Here, in the United States, black- eyed peas are best known, especially in the south, as a good luck and prosperity meal. In Africa, it is an everyday, year round meal, used in all forms- ground, dried, fresh and a good source of protein. And may I add it is very affordable .
If you are unfamiliar with black-eyed beans, they are delicious little white beans with a mild taste and smooth texture- what I like most, is their meaty flavor and texture-they really do have a bite to it, compared to other beans.
Lately, there has been more interest in them and so many home cooks and chefs are making use of these beans transforming them into exquisite meals.
Here is a variation on this rustic yet flavorful use of these beans- known as Red Red. Red Red is a simple tomato stew that is enjoyed widely through out Ghana.
Don’t quote me on this, rumor has that, it’s name is derived from combining red palm oil and tomato sauce. You see, these beans always make everything better for me- especially after a rough week. I make them eat for breakfast with puff puff(one of my all time comfort breakfast) and serve it with fried plantains for lunch. When am on a health kick, I grill or roast plantains.
I so wasn’t on one this weekend, ANYTHING greasy I just had to have.
While I absolutely love smoked meat or fish in my beans; Yes, truly do- most often is more about the flavor these proteins add to the meal rather than the meat itself. I thought it would to a good idea to make this without any smoked meats, which is customary.
However, if you have crayfish (dried shrimp) do include them to make up for the loss of the smoky flavor. A trick I do all the time is to use smoked paprika to add that smoky flavor to my food, when I can’t get a hold of smoked meat.
Believe me, sometimes getting a hold of smoked meats is like searching for a needle in a haystack or paying with an arm and a leg. Ah! I am not willing to shed out that amount of money all the time ! Just for special occasion .
Can’t find or don’t like Black eyed peas? No worries, you could make these with black, red or any other types of beans. Don’t forget to adjust cooking times and flavors. Enjoy!!!
Watch How to Make It
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Red Red (African Stewed Black-eyed peas)
Ingredients
- 4 -14.5 ounce canned beans or 1 pound dried beans
- 1/2 – ¾ cup palm oil or Canola oil
- 1 medium Onions
- 1 Tablespoon ginger
- ½ tablespoon garlic
- 2 Tomatoes
- 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 Tablespoon paprika
- 1/3 cup crayfish optional
- 2 cups – 3 cups stock/ water
- 1-tablespoon bouillon powder vegetarian, chicken (optional)
- 2-3 green onions chopped
- Salt and pepper as needed
- 1 habanero pepper or sub with hot pepper or sauce optional
Instructions
- Rinse dry black-eyed pea beans and pick through and discard any foreign object. (I did not have to do this because I used the package beans,). Add beans to a large pot covering with 3-4 inches of cold water.
- Cover and let sit overnight or 6 to 8 hours
- Drain the soaked beans, rinse, and place the beans in a Dutch oven or pressure cooker. Follow instructions for cooking beans in your pressure cooker. It takes roughly between 8 to 12 minutes to cook. If not using a pressure cook, cook the beans for about 50- 60 mins or until tender
- Drain the cooked beans and set aside
- If using canned beans you should start from here.
- Heat oil (palm and canola) in large saucepan over medium heat until hot. Sauté the onions in the oil for 3-4 minutes, stirring often and scraping any browned bits off the bottom of the pot.
- Add tomatoes, tomatoes paste , ginger, garlic, paprika and bouillon powder/ cubes. Cook while stirring for about 60 seconds,
- Through in the Cray fish and let it simmer, for about 10-15 minutes, add water/ stock if needed to prevent burns. Continue to cook the sauce, stirring occasionally
- Finally add the beans, green onions and the remaining stock/water and bring to a boil and simmer for another 10-15 minutes.
- Adjust for seasonings, and beans consistency with water and serve.
Nutrition Information:
This was new to me and lovely comfort food. It will go into our regular rotation, for sure!
Smoked paprika was great and I didn’t miss the crayfish. I used 1 teaspoon of dried ginger since I assumed you were using fresh – was that right?
I’m so happy you liked it. The beauty of this recipe is how versatile it is, so ground or fresh ginger both work great.
I lived in Sierra Leone a few years and they have a similar dish cooked with chicken that I loved very much. Do you use over ripe plantain or slightly ripened ones? I have tried but need some guidance here.
Adding chicken to this recipe sounds great. You can use either ripe or overripe. It depends on what you have and what you like. The overripe are a little harder to peel and fry. Here’s my recipe for frying sweet plantain if you want to give it a whirl. https://www.africanbites.com/fried-plantains/
I have never used palm oil before. I got a bottle buy it comes out so thick, it’s solid. Is that normal? The bottle says palm oil put ingredients say palm fruit pulp.
It’s hard to tell without seeing the jar. Palm oil is semi-solid at room temperature, so you may need to spoon it out if the weather is chilly. It’s extracted from the fruit pulp, but it is oil, not fruit pulp. Hope that clarifies it.
This was so easy to make any made loads which we consumed over a couple of days. Proper comfort food, I used tinned beans but I’m looking for dried so I don’t have to make so much next time lol
Great to hear about your experience. Thank you for your love!!!
I was looking for a new twist on black-eyed peas, so I decided to try this recipe. My husband and I really enjoyed it! I used frozen black-eyed peas instead of dried or canned. I added 1/2 tsp. ground ginger, but I think I’ll cut back t 1/4 tsp next time. Didn’t have green onions (would have looked really pretty). I served with brown rice and hot sauce–would have really been good with a slice of cornbread. My husband said to give this 5 stars. Delicious!!
Thank you, Susan (and hubby), for the wonderful feedback. Please stay tuned for more wonderful recipes like this. 😉
Yeah, so this is basically a spiced black eye bean stew in tomato sauce, which is a great thing. But I bet some kielbasa or smoked sausage would be good in this too, for our European friends? Yum… Thank you for the recipe!
Hi Sean. Oh yes, kielbasa or smoked sausage would work perfectly.
Loved it! Thank you for this recipe! When I first visited Ghana, Red red was my favorite food and I have been wanting to make it ever since! Using red palm oil and a smoked turkey wing for the meat definitely contributed to the delicious, authentic taste! From now on, this is my go-to dish for an Afrocentric New Year’s dinner!
! I have been wanting to make it ever since! I used the palm oil and a smoked turkey wing, which definitely enhanced the flavor! recommend using palm oil for both the flavor and the color! This recipe reminded me of my first taste of Red Red in Ghana!
Looking forward to cooking this for my family
Thank you so much for this recipe. My first time making this was a slam dunk! My daughter loved it, and my neighbor had seconds when we had an impromptu dinner visit. Any advice on what to season with when you’re trying to decrease your salt intake? Thanks again for this recipe. I’ve been learning how to make African food.
Glad to hear it worked out well. If you can cut back on the salt .
I’ll be making this for the first time tomorrow. My suggestion for cutting back on the salt would be to omit the bullion powder and be sure to use a good broth rather than water for the liquid.
This was delicious. I used whole dried crawfish and smoked paprika. Because all of the ingredients are so flavorful used water not stock but was sparing with it.
This is the only way I truly enjoy eating black-eyed peas. Thank you for sharing this deliciousness.
It looks super healthy, I wonder whether I could roll em up into sandwiches or so
You sure can.
This was so delicious! I’m so happy I was able to find red palm oil, it added flavor and color. I left out the crayfish powder to keep it vegetarian. I will definitely make it again…especially since I have a huge bottle of red palm oil to use. 🙂
Glad to hear it worked out well for you.Enjoy.
Wowie, this recipe hit the spot! I didn’t have onions and it was still fantastic. I added some liquid smoke for a vegetarian friendly boost though this was so flavorful that I wonder if I even needed it. I can’t wait to make this quick, simple, and DELICIOUS recipe many more times, thank you so much for sharing it!
Is this crayfish powder or fresh crayfish?
It is crayfish powder.
This recipe was so good. I made this as my first African for Kwanzaa food item to compliment other dishes. Omg!!!!! Thanks.
So glad to hear it worked out well for you. Happy New year!!
AWESOME recipe!!! I gave you a 5 star rating.
Thanks.
I modified it a bit the recipe by adding two heap full tablespoons of black strap molasses. Hmmmm! Miam Miam!
Do you have a suggestion to substitute crayfish? I follow the precepts of Leviticus 11:9-10 (and other dietary restrictions in the Bible).
I follow kosher law as well, I substitute anchovy paste if you can find it, otherwise you can even add can tuna, like many shito recipe use it also
Thanks for sharing
Thanks for sharing.