Cameroon: vegan koki beans

Our vegan world tour has brought us to Cameroon in Central Africa. Here we cook vegan koki beans, a steamed packet of black-eyed peas, red palm oil, and scotch bonnet. Equally popular on the street as on the wedding feast, this meal is easy to prepare but takes a bit of time. Read on to learn more about the dish or jump straight to the recipe.

Cameroonian cuisine

Cameroon may geographically lie in Central Africa but it is situated on the northwestern border, just east of Nigeria in West Africa. Where Nigeria is often called the Giant of Africa for its size in several areas like population, economy, and entertainment industry, Cameroon is often called Africa in Miniature ​[1]​. This nickname is earned by the country’s sheer diversity when it comes to ecosystems and people. There are coastal regions, high mountains, deserts, tropical forests, volcanoes, and sahels. And with some 250 ethnic groups, you would be right to expect a diverse cuisine to match the diverse landscape.

Due to Cameroon’s proximity to West Africa, and in particular the large country Nigeria, Cameroon’s cuisine has a lot of West African influences and many of the popular dishes are usually associated with West Africa, such as jollof rice, eru, fufu and puff puffs ​[2]–[4]​. The national dish is ndole, a stew made with ndole leaves (bitter leaves), peanuts, crayfish and beef. Other stews include banana malaxé made with plantains, garlic, ginger, tomatoes, and peanuts (which reminds me a bit of the agatogo we made when visiting Rwanda in East Africa), and okra soup which is usually served to sick people ​[3], [4]​. Tarot roots, referred to as cocoyams, are included in many dishes, not just as a side. For instance, ekwang is made by packing grated cocoyam into cocoyam leaves and boiling the packages in red palm oil with crayfish ​[2], [4]​.

Koki beans

One Cameroonian staple dish that caught my eye is koki beans. This steamed bean pudding is made from coarsely ground black-eyed peas, transformed into a batter with red palm oil, spinach, and scotch bonnet for flavour. The batter is steamed, turning it into a moist, fluffy pudding beloved by many Cameroonians and sold by multiple street vendors ​[5], [6]​ and often served at weddings ​[7]​.

Moi moi or moin moin are the koki beans equivalent in neighbouring Nigeria. To make moi moi, black-eyed peas are ground and steamed in leaves (moi moi leaves, uma leaves, or banana leaves) or serving cups. The main difference compared to koki beans is that moi moi are seasoned with tomatoes, peppers, and onions instead of red palm oil and spinach ​[8]–[11]​. Sometimes, the moi moi are stuffed with spam, hard-boiled eggs, or smoked fish ​[9]–[11]​. Ghana also has its own steamed bean pudding called tuubani, made from bean flour instead of coarsely ground beans ​[12]​.

The koki beans, moi moi, and tuubani also bring dishes like tamales, Guatemalan chuchitos, and Venezuelan hallacas to mind, though those are of course made from corn flour instead of beans.

How to make vegan koki beans

In contrast to Nigerian moi moi, Cameroonian koki beans are actually already vegan (depending on the stock cubes used) ​[5]–[7], [13]–[17]​. To prepare the dish, you just have to buy peeled black-eyed peas or peel some yourself. The beans are then soaked and blended with water and some scotch bonnet to create a quite loose batter. The batter is then seasoned with red palm oil, some vegetable stock (typically Maggi cubes), and tarot leaves or spinach. You can also add a bit of onions for extra seasoning but this doesn’t seem common ​[5]​.

The tricky part is to steam the koki beans. To do so, aluminum foil is placed in a bowl followed by 1-2 banana leaves or parchment paper. The loose batter is then ladled into the leaf and the whole thing is wrapped up carefully, using the aluminum foil to seal it. The packet is then steamed until the batter has finished cooking (60-90 minutes), turning it into a firm and soft, spongy pudding. Enjoy with some boiled plantain or on its own.

The red palm oil is partially added for flavour and moisture but also to create a rich golden colour, just like how we added annato seed-coloured oil to the vegan hallacas we made when visiting Venezuela (which, incidentally, were boiled in banana leaves). So if you can’t find any red palm oil in your pantry but have annato seeds, consider staining some oil with them to get a nice colour.

Peeling black-eyed peas

When preparing the vegan koki beans, I learned a neat trick for peeling black-eyed peas from Hilda Elbrown’s youtube channel. First, they soak the beans for 7-10 minutes and then they pulse the beans quickly in a blender to smash them into coarse pieces. This loosens the skins enough that they can (almost) be rinsed off. Much easier than when I tried to peel beans for the Tanzanian bajia (black-eyed pea balls) that topped the urojo soup. (I kind of stopped peeling beans halfway…). Since the beans are blended later anyway, it doesn’t matter if they are smashed. Another trick many cooks prefer is to just buy peeled black-eyed peas. Even easier!

Conclusion

The steamed vegan koki beans were great. I really like the texture but it is a bit hard to describe. A bit like polenta but fluffier. Not like cake (far from it) but not as dense as polenta either. The flavour was mild, with hints of red palm oil and a slight heat from the half scotch bonnet I added. In my case, the batter separated a bit, almost as if the bean bits and oil had floated to the top during steaming. This resulted in some regions that lacked bean crumbs and were more jelly-like and homogenous (and white instead of yellow).

The koki beans are very easy to make and are unlike most things I have eaten before. I found them really tasty and very intriguing. I’m planning on doing some more experimentation with the batter as a base and trying some other ingredients in there, to change up the flavour a bit. Or maybe I’ll go for some Nigerian moi moi next.

Next time on our vegan world tour, we will cross the Atlantic and return to Central America to cook up something yummy. If you don’t want to miss the next stop, you can subscribe to the email list and I’ll send you an alert when we arrive.

Vegan koki beans

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Koki beans

This Cameroonian classic is made by grinding black-eyed peas and steaming them with scotch bonnet, red palm oil and spinach leaves.

Course Snack, street food

Cuisine Cameroonian, Central African

Keyword beans, steaming

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Soaking 12 hours hours

Servings 3 packets

Equipment

• 1 blender
• aluminum foil
• banana leaves or parchment paper

Ingredients

• 250 mL black-eyed peas
• 300 mL water
• ½-1 scotch bonnet
• 40 mL red palm oil
• 200 mL spinach, loosely packed
• 2 tsp vegetable stock powder or ½ cube
• salt to taste

For packets

• 3 pcs aluminum foil
• 3 large pcs of banana leaves or parchment paper

Serving suggestions

• 2 green plantains

Instructions

Peeling beans

• If using unpeeled beans, they will need peeling.
• Soak beans for 10 minutes
• Transfer beans and plenty of water to a blender. Pulse for a few seconds, just to break the beans apart.
• Transfer to a large bowl and add more water. The peals should float to the top.

  Skim of the bean peels. You might need to repeat this a few times.

Soaking beans

• Soak the peeled beans in plenty of water overnight

Make the batter

• Drain the soaked beans and add them, along with scotch bonnet and water to a blender.

  Don't add all water now, save some to adjust the texture after blending.

  The final texture should be just a little coarse. The batter should be watery.
• Transfer blended beans to a bowl. Stir in stock powder/cube, red palm oil, and salt to taste.
• Stir in the spinach leaves. If they are large, you can shred them first.

Steam koki beans

• Place a piece of aluminum foil in a small bowl. Add a banana leaf or some parchment paper.
• Pour the batter into the banana leaf or parchment paper. Fold up the sides of the banana leaf/parchment paper and close the aluminum foil around the package to seal it.
• Keep making packages until you run out of batter.
• Place a spacer, such as a steamer basket, a small cooking rack, lid of a bamboo steamer, or some aluminum foil in a large pot. Pour in a few cm of water.
• Place the koki packages on top of the spacer. The packages should not sit in the water.
• Steam for 60-75 minutes. Refill water as needed

Prepare sides and serve

• While steaming the koki beans, prepare any side dishes, such as boiled plantain.
• If boiling plantain: peel and divide into 2-3 parts. Boil in lightly salted water for 15-25 minutes.
• When the koki bean packages have finished steaming, remove them from the pot.

  Let them cool enough to handle, then open the packages and enjoy with your side of choice.

References