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AI-generated photograph: Red red black-eyed bean stew in a small terracotta bowl, glossy with palm oil, beside caramelised plantain slices on a matte white plate, sprinkled with golden gari

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West African · Lunch

Red red with fried plantain

palm oil black-eyed beans · sweet plantain · toasted gari

AI-generated photograph

A Ghanaian favourite: black-eyed beans simmered in a tomato and red palm oil sauce, served with sweet fried plantain. The name comes from the red of the oil and the red gold of the plantain.

Contains: none of the 14 allergens, as written. None of the 14 allergens is in this recipe as written. Stock cubes can contain celery, so check the packet.

Ingredients

  • 4 tablespoons red palm oil (about 60ml)
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • A thumb-sized piece of ginger (about 20g), grated
  • 1 scotch bonnet chilli, finely chopped, or half for a milder dish
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 400g tin chopped tomatoes
  • 2 tins (400g each) black-eyed beans, drained and rinsed
  • 200ml vegetable stock (half a stock cube in 200ml hot water)
  • Half a teaspoon salt, then more to taste
  • 2 ripe plantains (yellow with black spots)
  • 4 tablespoons (60ml) vegetable oil, for frying the plantain
  • 1 tablespoon gari (toasted cassava granules), to sprinkle (optional)

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Let's cook

  1. Heat the palm oil in a pan on a medium heat. Fry the onion for 6 minutes until soft. Add the garlic, ginger, scotch bonnet and paprika and fry for 1 minute.
  2. Add the tomatoes and cook for 8 minutes, stirring now and then, until thick and the oil starts to rise to the top.
  3. Stir in the beans, stock and salt. Simmer for 10 minutes, crushing a few beans against the side of the pan with the spoon to thicken the sauce.
  4. Meanwhile fry the plantain. Peel the plantains and cut them on a slant into slices 1cm thick. Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan on a medium heat and fry them in batches for 2 to 3 minutes on each side until deep golden. Drain on kitchen paper.
  5. Taste the beans and add more salt if needed. Serve in bowls with the plantain beside them and a sprinkle of gari on top for crunch.

Tips

  • Plantain is sweetest when the skin is yellow with lots of black spots.
  • In Ghana red red is often made with dried beans cooked from scratch; tins make it a quick lunch.
  • The beans keep in the fridge for 3 days. Reheat them until steaming hot.

Swaps

  • No palm oil: use vegetable oil and add an extra half teaspoon of smoked paprika.
  • With fish: flake in a small tin of smoked mackerel at the end, close to the smoked fish used in Ghana.

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