African Rice and Beans
African Rice and Beans — spicy flavorful rice and beans combo flavored with onions, thyme, smoked paprika and garlic.
As a child, rice was not one of my favorite meal (shocker right?), considering the fact that most kids go bananas for it. Not me. The only time I truly enjoyed rice is when paired with beans. On the flip side, I love love beans- still do. I cannot let a month pass , without cooking up some good old beans like this one here. And if you happen to do a search on beans here you see I have plenty around here.
In most parts of West Africa , beans are cooked separate from rice . It’s not fairly common to see rice and beans cooked together.
The inspiration of this dish is from Ghanaian dish Waakye – A rustic dish made with rice , beans(black-eyed peas ) and kanwa .
Here is my version of this spicy flavorful rice and beans. While I absolutely love smoked meat or fish in my beans; I thought it would to a good idea to make this without any fish. However, if you have crayfish do include them to make up for the loss of the smoky flavor.
I did not include crayfish in this version. I added some smoked paprika to make it tastier and it always does the trick.
Serve it with this chicken here
Enjoy.!!!
This recipe was update March 17 from Waakye to African rice and beans.
African Rice and Beans
Ingredients
- ½ cup red / palm / or canola oil I used ½ and ½
- 2-3 garlic clove minced
- 1 medium onion diced
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ scotch bonnet pepper or ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 4 tomatoes diced
- 2 cups washed long grain rice I used basmati
- 2 cups cooked beans black, red, black-eyed peas
- 4 1/2 - 5 cups chicken broth or water
- 1 tablespoon salt or more to taste
- 1/4 cup crayfish optional
- 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon optional
Instructions
- Heat a saucepan with oil. Then add onions, garlic, thyme, smoked paprika and hot pepper, sauté for about a minute, add tomatoes. Cook for about 5-7 minutes.
- Stir in rice to the pan; continue stirring for about 2 minutes.
- Then add beans , 4 1/2 cups of chicken stock/water, bring to a boil reduce heat, and simmer until rice is cooked, about 18 minutes or more. Adjust for salt and pepper. You have to stir occasionally to be preventing any burns.
- Serve warm with chicken, stew or vegetables
Nutrition Information:
Soon to be family medicine resident here — Immaculate, I have been using your recipe to make a modified waakye for years. I add more beans, more paprika, quinoa instead of rice same amount, more bouillon instead of salt (today used vegan bouillon as it’s Friday in Lent), paprika not smoked, . Just made it again today… like I don’t know if you know how delicious this is..wow. Quite literally one of my favorite foods ever. Thank you. God bless you
Hi Anthony,
Thank you so much! I’m truly honored it’s one of your favorite foods—your Lent-friendly version sounds amazing. Wishing you all the best as you start residency. God bless you!
Really, really good! I made this as written but substituted Knorr Tomato/Chicken bouillon for the chicken stock and a small tin of diced jalapeños for the scotch bonnet. A great, smokey, flavourful rice with some heat. We ate it as a main course. Didn’t miss the meat at all. My wife made me save the recipe to make again!
Thanks so much 🙂
Awesome. I am so happy this was a hit in your home, Gary!
Is it necessary to use so much oil? Seems like 1/2 a cup is so much lol. I love the look of this recipe and wanna try it but not with so much oil
I understand that it looks like a lot of oil. It helps keep the rice moist, but you can reduce the amount if you’re worried about it.
Wow! I admit I didn’t pay attention and grabbed a half cup of coconut manna by accident, since I was going to use coconut oil. Oops. I then added about 5 tbsp of avocado oil because the manna started to burn. I also used basmati brown rice…and OMG. To die for! A huge hit in my house. Thank you for sharing..it’s fantastic even with errors!
Hahhaah Amazing to hear your story, Thank you so much for sharing here. Am glad your family like it, explore more recipes on the blog and become Master Chef 🙂
This is my favorite rice recipe. I found it a few months ago and it has become my go-to dish. Every recipe I’ve tried so far has been great! This is by far my favorite website for recipes! 🙂
Wow! Thanks so much, Brittany. 🙂 Don’t forget to try some desserts, too. Here’s my newest one: Chocolate Mousse or one of our readers’ favorites: Lemon Sour Cream Pound Cake and Sweet Potato Pie. Enjoy!
Is very fantastic
Thank you! 🙂
Hi, I wanted to leave a comment after preparing this recipe. I used half the ingredients mentioned because I wasn’t sure I would like it. I really enjoyed this dish, usually I prepare beans and rice separately but together they actually work really well together. I served it with baked chicken legs I prepared separately. Thanks for sharing I will consider making this dish in the future.
Thanks, Juliet! I hope you will also enjoy my Decadent Coffee and Desserts To Make Your Day while you’re considering making this recipe.
My son is making this recipe for his online International Foods class. He doesn’t care for tomatoes, would using only one alter the recipe much? Also, if I use canned black beans, do they need to be rinsed first?
Hi Tammy! Using one tomato wouldn’t alter the recipe much, the taste won’t be as prominent with 4 but 1 should be okay if he doesn’t like it 🙂 For the canned black beans, you can drain them.
I can’t wait to try this recipe! As a vegetarian should I use water or vegetable broth?
I would go with vegetarian stock. Enjoy!!
I love this recipe so much
Glad you do. Thanks so much!
This was so good! Thanks for sharing your talent and recipes!
Do you cook two cups of dry beans or use two cups of beans that have already been cooked? (I hope I’m wording that correctly!!)
Hi Amy! It’s cooked beans . Canned beans would would work as well.