Gbegiri

the smooth yellow bean soup of the Yoruba, cowpeas skinned and worked until they pour, eaten alongside ewedu and stew

Origin: Yorubaland, the Bight of Benin

From the journey of Beans.

Gbegiri is a Yoruba soup and Yorubaland is not a country. It runs across south-western Nigeria and over the border into southern Benin, and the soup is cooked on both sides of a line that European negotiators drew through the middle of the Yoruba world in 1889. Beninese and Nigerian versions are the same soup. It is made from the cowpea, Vigna unguiculata, the black-eyed bean that is one of the few staple crops West Africa domesticated for itself rather than receiving from elsewhere. The skins come off first, which is the laborious part and the non-negotiable one: a gbegiri made with the skins left on is grainy and dull, and the whole character of the soup is a texture so smooth it pours like thick cream. It is almost never eaten alone. The classic service is abula: gbegiri, the mucilaginous green ewedu, and a red pepper stew ladled side by side over amala so that the eater mixes them on the plate. Three soups at once sounds excessive until you understand that each is doing a different job, and the yellow one is there for body.

Ingredients

400 g dried black-eyed beans (cowpeas)
1.5 litres water
4 tbsp red palm oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp ground dried crayfish (optional)
1 tsp ground dried chilli, or to taste
1 stock cube (optional)
1.5 tsp salt, or to taste

Method

Soak the beans in plenty of cold water for at least two hours, or overnight.
Remove the skins. Rub handfuls of the soaked beans firmly between your palms, then add water to the bowl and pour off the floating skins. Repeat until the beans are clean and pale yellow. This takes fifteen minutes and there is no shortcut worth taking.
Boil the skinned beans in the water until completely soft and falling apart, forty-five minutes to an hour. Do not salt them yet.
Mash hard with a wooden spoon or the traditional broom whisk, or blend, until absolutely smooth. It should pour thickly from the spoon; loosen with hot water if it is stiff.
In a separate pan, fry the onion gently in the palm oil until soft, about six minutes.
Stir the oil and onion into the bean purée along with the crayfish, chilli, stock cube, and salt. Simmer together for ten minutes, stirring, so the palm oil is fully incorporated and the soup turns an even orange-yellow.
Taste and adjust. Serve beside ewedu and a pepper stew over amala or pounded yam.

Notes

Skinning is what separates gbegiri from a bean porridge, and it is easier on beans that have soaked long enough to slip. Some cooks blend the soaked beans briefly on a low speed first, which loosens the skins in seconds, then float them off; this is legitimate and saves the fingers. Palm oil is not optional here for colour or flavour. For a vegan version, drop the crayfish and stock cube and lift the seasoning with a little more chilli and salt.

The Gastrographer

Name: Gbegiri
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 2 h
Yield: 6
Cuisine: the Bight of Benin
Ingredients: 400 g dried black-eyed beans (cowpeas); 1.5 litres water; 4 tbsp red palm oil; 1 onion, finely chopped; 2 tbsp ground dried crayfish (optional); 1 tsp ground dried chilli, or to taste; 1 stock cube (optional); 1.5 tsp salt, or to taste

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control