Creole black-eyed beans and ‘collards’

This is a slow-cooked dish that you can use to your advantage if you have a slowcooker – simply pop your soaked black- eyed beans in with everything else (there’s barely any chopping) and come back to a hot evening meal. Otherwise, if I’m cooking it on the stove, I’ll save it for lunch or supper on the weekend knowing that it will take 2–3 hours.

Melt in the mouth, well-cooked greens accompany this dish, making it a complete meal, providing you don’t make it too spicy or salty. It’s traditional to serve this with collard greens but they are only available in hotter countries such as southern USA, India, East Africa, Brazil and Portugal, so opt for spring greens, mustard greens or turnip greens instead, or try spinach, chard and Savoy cabbage, which are more widely available. Serve with basmati rice if you like, adding plenty of lime wedges and maybe a chutney or pickle (see here) if serving to guests.

Serves 3–4

1 tbsp ghee

1 medium onion, chopped

¼ tsp asafoetida

1 green pepper, chopped

3 sticks of celery, chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

620ml (2½ cups) water

250g (1¼ cups) black-eyed beans, soaked overnight

2 tsp dried oregano

2 tsp coriander seeds, crushed

1 tsp smoked paprika

1¼ tsp sea salt, or to taste

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

⅛ tsp cayenne pepper or more to taste

200g (2 cups) spring greens, chard, cabbage or spinach, any hard stalks removed and leaves chopped or cut into ribbons

1 Melt the ghee in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add the onion and sauté until it begins to brown, then add the asafoetida, green pepper, celery and garlic and cook for 2 minutes, adding 1–2 tablespoons of the water if needed to prevent sticking.

2 Add the beans, remaining water, herbs, spices and ¼ teaspoon of the salt and bring to the boil, then simmer, lid on, for at least 2 hours until tender.

3 Around 10 minutes before you’re ready to serve, and the rest of the salt to the saucepan. In a separate pan, steam your greens – they all have different cooking times. Spinach will cook faster, then chard, then cabbage, then spring greens. Serve the black-eyed beans with the greens on the side.

FEELING
PITTA

Reduce the amount of black pepper and paprika. Guests can sprinkle a little more on at the table.

FEELING
KAPHA

This is delicious with some added chilli or cayenne pepper.

TIP

•

If you’re using a slowcooker, place all the ingredients (apart from the greens) in the pot. Add ¼ tsp salt and cook on high for 8 hours, or until the peas are soft.

You could use dried cannellini beans instead of black-eyed beans – they take about 1½ hours to cook on the stove from soaked.