Vegan Adalu: Nigerian Beans and Corn Sauce

West Africans love beans. Plain and simple. Because of this love, I am shocked when Ghanaians ask me where I get my protein?? We literally eat beans maybe once a day in different forms: whether it is in your kose for breakfast, waakye for lunch or beans stew for dinner, it is everywhere.

A West African country that takes beans seriously is Nigeria. From moin moin to gbegiri to akara, beans is everywhere. Another classic is adalu. Adalu is a simple beans and corn one pot stew. Like many West African dishes, everyone has their own spin to it. Some people add crayfish, others add meat, others skip this step entirely, but all of these variations are still adalu

What will you need to make Adalu

• Beans: Black eye peas are preferred. You can find them at your local grocery store. I cook my from dry by soaking them overnight and boiling it on the stove for 50mins -1hour or till soft. If you get the chance to get honey beans/oloyin, that is supreme. It is basically black eye peas but has a sweet undertone to it. It is quite popular in Nigeria
• Corn: Fresh corn is great but here in Canada, corn season comes and goes very quickly. Canned corn kernels are just as fantastic
• Tomato
• Spices: Spices like curry powder, onion powder, garlic powder and veggie bouillon add flavour to the sauce and gives it character. obviously you can use your own combination of spices but the combination i use never fails me
• Nori: This is completely optional but since a lot of people use dried shrimp powder or crayfish for this recipe, I thought to emulate the fishy flavour with some nori

Print Recipe

Vegan Adalu

Nigerian

By Afia – Serves: 4

Prep Time: 10 minutes – Cooking Time: 20 minutes – Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 2.5 tbsp palm oil (add more or less based on preference)
• 1 small onion chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp minced ginger
• 1/2 scotch bonnet pepper minced (add more or less based on spice preference)
• 2 cups cooked black eye peas
• 1 cup corn
• 1 cup chopped tomatoes
• 3/4 tsp each of onion powder, garlic powder, curry powder, nori powder
• 1/2 tsp veggie bouillon powder (I use knorr organic veggie stock powder)

Instructions

1

In a pot, heat the palm oil

2

Once the palm oil is hot, add the onions, garlic, ginger, and scotch bonnet pepper

3

Sauté the ingredients till the onions are soft

4

Add the tomato sauce and let it cook for five minutes or till it starts boiling

5

Add the rest of the ingredients, cover the pot and let it cook at medium heat for 10 minutes

6

After 10 minutes add a splach of water (~1/4 cup of water to loosen up the sauce)

7

Cover and let it cook for another 5 minutes

8

Serve with fried or boiled plantains, rice, or gari

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