Ewa Agoyin Recipe: Mashed Beans with Agoyin Sauce

Q: Can you cook the beans in a pressure cooker?

Yes. Sisi Jemimah suggests one to cut down the cooking time, and All Nigerian Recipes says it considerably reduces the time beans take. Use your cooker's setting for dried black-eyed peas, then mash the beans as in Step 5. If they still hold their shape, simmer them uncovered for a few minutes first.

Ewa agoyin is a Yoruba dish of beans cooked until extremely soft and then mashed, served with a stew of bell peppers, onions, ginger, dried chilies, crayfish powder and palm oil (Wikipedia). This version boils honey beans or black-eyed peas to a soft mash. The sauce is soaked dried peppers, chili seeds, ginger and crayfish, fried slowly in palm oil with dark-fried onions until it is nearly black.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 3 hours | Total Time: 3 hours 20 minutes | Servings: 6

Difficulty: Medium | Calories: ~630 per serving

Where Does the Name Ewa Agoyin Come From?

Ewa is the Yoruba word for beans. The food archive AFN says Agoyin refers to the Aganyin people of the Benin Republic, whose sellers and hawkers popularised the dish in Nigeria, and that the original name was ewa aganyin (African Food Network). Culture Custodian adds that Nigerians use Agoyin as a general term for Beninese and Togolese people. By its account the dish arrived with the first generation of Agoyin migrants as far back as the sixties and grew more popular in Lagos in the 80s (Culture Custodian).

Wikipedia says it is eaten across many Nigerian states, particularly at breakfast. It is typically served with Agege bread, a variety that originated in Agege, Lagos State (Wikipedia). BusinessDay lists other partners: boiled eggs, fried plantain, ponmo (cow skin), assorted meat, fish and fried yam (BusinessDay).

Which Peppers and Beans Should You Buy?

Dried peppers, not fresh ones. Sisi Jemimah’s sauce uses dried bell peppers, Cameroon peppers and dried pepper seeds, and she says fresh peppers won’t give the authentic taste (Sisi Jemimah). In her video notes she goes further: authentic ewa agoyin uses just dry pepper seeds, and dry tatashe is added to tone down the heat (Sisi Jemimah’s Recipes). Ajoke of My Active Kitchen agrees that dried red bell pepper reduces or almost neutralises the hotness of bird’s eye chillies (My Active Kitchen).

Dried tatashe can be hard to find outside Nigeria. Chef Lola recommends California chili pods, also known as Anaheim, New Mexico or Magdalena chilis, with mild to medium heat and a fruity, smoky flavor (Chef Lola’s Kitchen). Without dried bell peppers, Sisi says you can use just the seeds, sold in most grocery stores, especially Asian ones, as crushed red chillies or red pepper flakes. She warns they are very, very hot (Sisi Jemimah).

Two tablespoons of flakes against six dried peppers is far less than her video’s half cup; blend in more in Step 3 if you want a hotter sauce.

This recipe leaves out iru. A reader asked Sisi Jemimah about locust beans, and she replied that ewa agoyin does not require them (Sisi Jemimah). BusinessDay’s description of the sauce does include them (BusinessDay).

For the beans, Chef Lola uses black-eyed peas and says honey beans (ewa oloyin) are fine (Chef Lola’s Kitchen). Chef Chidi of All Nigerian Foods writes that ewa agoyin is always made of brown beans (All Nigerian Foods). Asked whether brown beans change the taste, Sisi said they won’t (Sisi Jemimah).

What Makes Agoyin Sauce So Dark?

Three things: the oil, the onions and time. Sisi Jemimah names the right peppers, loads of palm oil and bleaching the oil as appropriate as her three keys to the taste (Sisi Jemimah).

Cooks split on the bleaching. Sisi bleaches her palm oil for 10 to 12 minutes on a medium hob, then lowers the flame for the onions (Sisi Jemimah). All Nigerian Recipes heats it until it starts smoking and the red color turns clear, at medium heat so it doesn’t get too hot too quickly (All Nigerian Recipes). Chef Lola takes it to very hot but not bleached (Chef Lola’s Kitchen), and Chef Chidi gives it about 3 minutes without letting it bleach (All Nigerian Foods).

Step 4 sits in the middle: about 10 minutes, stopping at the first wisp of smoke. My Active Kitchen says to keep the kitchen well ventilated while the oil bleaches (My Active Kitchen). Keep a lid within reach and stay at the stove.

The onions carry most of the color. AFN’s senior chef notes that caramelising them until truly dark is what makes the sauce black rather than red (African Food Network). Sisi lets hers burn a little, and adds that some cooks let them go all black for extra crunch (Sisi Jemimah).

Then comes the long fry. Sisi gives the sauce at least 40 minutes on low heat, stirring so it doesn’t burn, until it is very dark but definitely not burnt (Sisi Jemimah). Chef Chidi keeps frying until the pepper has the texture of small pebbles, grainy like sand (All Nigerian Foods). If the paste soaks up all the oil and sticks, the pan needs more oil, not more heat.

Ingredients for Ewa Agoyin

For the Beans:

1 lb (450 g) dried Nigerian honey beans (ewa oloyin) or black-eyed peas
8 cups (2 liters) water, plus more for parboiling and topping up
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

For the Pepper Paste:

6 dried red bell peppers (tatashe gbigbe), or 6 dried California or New Mexico chili pods
3 cups (720 ml) boiling water, for soaking
2 tablespoons dried chili seeds or crushed red pepper flakes
1-inch (2.5 cm) piece fresh ginger, peeled
2 tablespoons ground crayfish
1 crayfish or beef seasoning cube

For the Agoyin Sauce:

1 cup (240 ml) red palm oil
2 large red onions, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste

For Serving:

Agege bread or other soft white bread, or fried plantain, for serving

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Soak the Dried Peppers

1Snap the stems off the dried peppers. Put the peppers in a heatproof bowl, pour 3 cups (720 ml) of boiling water over them and press them under with a spoon so none float dry. Leave them for 2 hours, until soft and plump. Start the beans while they soak; the two finish at about the same time.

A hand pouring steaming water from a stainless-steel kettle into a glass bowl of wrinkled, deep red dried bell peppers, beside a small white bowl of red pepper flakes, a knob of ginger and two red onions on a wooden counter — Step 1- Soak the Dried Peppers

Step 2: Boil the Beans

2Pick over the beans for stones and rinse them twice. Cover them with water in a large pot, boil for 5 minutes, then drain and rinse. Return them to the pot with 8 cups (2 liters) of fresh water and simmer, partly covered, for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, topping up with hot water so the beans stay covered. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt once they are tender, then keep simmering until they crush to a paste between two fingers.

A hand stirring small light brown beans with a wooden spoon in a wide stainless-steel pot of cloudy simmering bean water on a gas stove, a small bowl of salt on the wooden counter — Step 2- Boil the Beans

Step 3: Blend the Pepper Paste

3Lift the peppers out of the soaking water and keep 1/2 cup (120 ml) of it. Blend the peppers with the chili seeds, ginger, ground crayfish, crumbled seasoning cube and the reserved water into a thick, slightly coarse paste. Add more soaking water a spoonful at a time only if the blades stall; a wet paste spatters and takes longer to fry.

A hand holding a glass blender jar of thick, seed-flecked brick-red pepper paste as a spatula scrapes down the sides, beside the soaking bowl, softened dried peppers on a board, a piece of ginger and a small bowl of ground crayfish — Step 3- Blend the Pepper Paste

Step 4: Fry the Agoyin Sauce

4Warm the palm oil in a wide, heavy pan on medium heat; after about 10 minutes it should turn from orange-red to clear amber and start to smoke. Lower the flame, add the onions and let them fry 10 to 15 minutes until dark brown with black edges. Stand back and stir in the pepper paste and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Keep it frying on low for 40 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until the sauce is very dark brown, almost black, grainy, with the oil floating on top.

A hand stirring a very dark, almost black agoyin sauce of fried onion rings and red pepper flecks in a wide stainless-steel pan on a gas stove, dark reddish oil pooling at the edges, with a small bowl of ground crayfish beside the stove — Step 4- Fry the Agoyin Sauce

Step 5: Mash and Serve

5Pour off all but about 1/2 cup (120 ml) of the bean liquid. Mash the beans in the pot with a wooden spoon or potato masher until almost no whole beans are left, loosening them with the liquid if they stiffen. Taste for salt. Spoon the beans onto plates, top each with about 1/3 cup of sauce and its oil, and serve hot with agege bread or fried plantain.

A hand spooning very dark agoyin sauce with fried onions over a mound of smooth, pale pinkish-tan mashed beans on an off-white plate, the sauce running down the sides, with the pan of sauce and a pot of mashed beans behind — Step 5- Mash and Serve

Frequently Asked Questions

Do tomatoes belong in agoyin sauce?

Most cooks leave them out. Sisi Jemimah calls tomatoes “a No, No!” (Sisi Jemimah) and Chef Lola says the sauce is traditionally made with dried chilis, dried tatashe and lots of onions. For people who can’t take the heat, Lola suggests rehydrating some dried tomatoes and blending a minimal quantity with the chilis (Chef Lola’s Kitchen). All Nigerian Recipes takes another route and stirs a cooked-down purée of 5 plum tomatoes into its dark onions (All Nigerian Recipes).

Can you make ewa agoyin ahead?

Yes. Chef Lola cooks more than she needs so she can keep some in the fridge or freezer, and says it freezes well. She also warns that the mashed beans dry out fast and look drier the colder they get (Chef Lola’s Kitchen). Store the beans and sauce in separate containers, and stir a few spoonfuls of hot water into the beans as they reheat.

Can you cook the beans in a pressure cooker?

Yes. Sisi Jemimah suggests one to cut down the cooking time (Sisi Jemimah), and All Nigerian Recipes says it considerably reduces the time beans take (All Nigerian Recipes). Use your cooker’s setting for dried black-eyed peas, then mash the beans as in Step 5. If they still hold their shape, simmer them uncovered for a few minutes first.

Is the video recipe the same as this one?

Close, with more of everything. Sisi Jemimah’s video lists 3 cups of black-eyed beans, 3 cups of palm oil and 8 dried bell peppers. It also lists 2 onions, 1/2 cup of dried pepper seeds, an inch of ginger and 2 tablespoons of dried whole crayfish. She notes that her blender can’t grind dry seeds, hence the slightly rough texture (Sisi Jemimah’s Recipes). This page uses a pound of beans, 1 cup of oil and 2 tablespoons of chili seeds.