Brown Beans (Oloyin / Ewa) – Nigerian Honey Beans

Brown Beans

Nigerian brown beans. Oloyin in Yoruba, which means honey, because they cook up faintly sweet. Agwa in Igbo.

Not the same as the pinto or kidney beans in an American supermarket. Different variety, different skin, different taste, and there is no substitute that makes proper ewa agoyin.

What to make

• Ewa agoyin. Boiled soft to collapsing, served with the black fried pepper sauce and bread. The best thing you can do with a bean.
• Beans porridge. Cooked down with palm oil, pepper, crayfish and sometimes yam or plantain.
• Moi moi and akara, if you are peeling them yourself.
• Beans and stew, plain, with fried plantain.

Cooking them properly

1. Pick through for stones. Always. Nigerian beans are farm-dried and something always gets through.
2. Rinse and boil in plenty of water without salt. Salt early makes beans tough.
3. Skim the foam in the first ten minutes.
4. Cook until soft. Forty-five minutes to over an hour depending on how old the beans are.
5. A tiny pinch of akanwu shortens the cooking time considerably if they are stubborn.
6. Season only once they are tender.

Product details

• Also known as: oloyin, honey beans, ewa, agwa, brown beans
• Storage: Airtight, cool and dry. Older beans take longer to cook.

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