No-Peel Gbegiri
Ọbẹ̀ Gbẹ̀gìrì·(aw-beh gbeh-gee-ree)
The Soup Pot and the Swallow
Why do we peel beans? For generations, grandmothers stood at the sink scrubbing skins off black-eyed peas, convinced it was the only path to a silky, proper gbẹ̀gìrì. They were wrong. The modern secret is keeping the skins, retaining the fiber, and annihilating the whole mess with a high-speed blender. What you get is the exact velvety, palm-oil-rich, profoundly funky taste of the homeland—a canonical, deeply comforting bowl of Yoruba history, streamlined for a Tuesday night.
Ingredients
- honey beans or black-eyed peas1 1/2 cup
- water or low-sodium chicken broth3 cup
- smoked dried fish1/2 cup
- red palm oil1/4 cup
- iru (fermented locust beans) or dark red miso paste1 tbsp
- ground crayfish or dried shrimp powder2 tbsp
- ata-gigun or cayenne pepper1 tsp
- Maggi or Knorr bouillon cubes2 small
Method
- 01
Cook the beans until they surrender entirely.
Throw the rinsed beans, three cups of liquid, and the smoked fish into a pressure cooker. Blast on high pressure for 40 minutes, then let it release naturally so the beans are completely disintegrated. If you've got the foresight, a slow cooker on high for eight hours does the same trick.
- 02
Obliterate the skins in a high-speed blender.
Fish out the smoked fish fillets and set them aside. Dump the hot, mushy beans and their cooking liquid into a blender. Run it on high for a full 60 to 90 seconds. You are relying on the blade to completely pulverize those tough bean skins into absolute velvet.
- 03
Build the flavor architecture on the stove.
Pour your pristine, pale puree into a pot over medium-low heat. Stir in the palm oil, the iru (or miso paste, if adapting), ground crayfish, cayenne, and crushed bouillon. The palm oil will instantly bloom the whole mixture into a brilliant, appetizing gold. Toss the smoked fish back in.
- 04
Simmer and stir like your life depends on it.
The Yoruba proverb dictates that gbẹ̀gìrì must be stirred. Keep a wooden spoon moving for 5 to 10 minutes, scraping the bottom as the starches swell and thicken the soup. You want a semi-fluid consistency, like a slightly runny pancake batter. Adjust with a splash of warm water if it gets sludgy, serve hot, and respect the fact that it will thicken as it cools.
From Cook Nigerian in America.