Nigerian Herby Beans Pottage Recipe

Beans pottage is a healthy one pot meal in Nigeria that is served  at any meal occasion, breakfast, lunch or dinner. Beans with its good protein content is great for growing children and adults as a way to control  your carbohydrate intake, because beans by its nature is quite filling .

Some people avoid beans because it is  difficult to digest. Gas of bloating! Excess gas in the intestine can cause discomfort and sometimes actual pain as well as embarrassing flatulence .Why is this so? This is because Beans contain some types of starches, for which our bodies have limited stores of digestive enzymes to handle these starches.
It’s the accumulated undigested or fermented starches that produce gas and is retained in the intestines and finally cause gas retention or flatulence in some of us. The gas that sends people in the same room with you racing out to get clean air away from you. Giggling is common in primary school classes as children are in the habit of realizing gas indiscriminately .
Sure you  remember the rhyme .. “Timbo timbo , bascalabar, titialabar pum, alaba laba Kai Kai, titi don mess.”

It is recommended that you soak the beans and pour away the water and cook with fresh water. Also slow cooking  helps to to reduce the flatulence.
My twist to this commonly cooked dish is the addition of effirin/ntong/nchawun . Addition of ntong in pottages always brings that umph to dishes.
I cooked beans pottage using a pressure cooker. The texture of the beans  is soft and creamy but not mushy. You will find this method interesting and different. You may wish to cook normally but this will take  a little more time. Enjoy your beans pottage

How to make Beans Pottage?

Ingredient
3 cups of brown black eye Beans
1 tablespoon Tomato purée
6 cooking spoons ground Tomato/ Pepper ( previously boiled)
1 medium size Onion(chopped)
10 leaves Ntong/ Effirin/Nchawun
Crayfish or Chicken seasoning to taste
1.5 liters Water
Salt to taste

Method
1, Pick and wash the beans. Leave in water for 30 minutes
2,Strain the water and pour beans into pot of water
3, Add  tomato purée , tomato/pepper mix, onion, seasoning, salt to taste
4, Cover pressure cook and bring to  boil.
5,Cook for 35 minutes on medium heat if using pressure cooker. If you are boiling on stove simply continue to check if beans is soft
6, Allow  pressure cooker to cool , open and return pot to burner and add the oil,
7, Turn off heat and add the ntong.
8, Serve with dodo,boiled plantain , rice or any carbohydrate of choice.

 

BEANS BALL AND DODO ( Serving Suggestion)

You create a dazzling presentation of your beans and dodo just like this.

Simply allow the beans to cool down, scoop portions of the beans with an ice cream scoop or a table spoon.

Drop beand ball on a bed of Ijebu Garri or any other type of garri.

Roll the beans ball to get it all covered with garri. You can use you hand.

Place each ball on dodo, sprinkle on a little garri and serve. ( see picture below)