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Look at that little cute bundle!
Watch the video to see me whipping up some dee-licious koki beans in my kitchen. Check out the printable recipe below.
A savory pudding made with black-eyed peas. It is moist, spongy and so tasty.
- 8 cups black eyed peas (koki beans) - peeled, soaked and rinsed
- 1 ½ cups palm oil
- 1 bag spinach (8 oz/227 grams)
- 1 ½ - 2 tablespoons salt
- 6 cups water
- 5 chili peppers (or other hot pepper to taste)
- 1 bag frozen banana leaves and/ or 1 roll aluminium foil (preferably non-stick)foil
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Put the soaked beans into a blender and blend together with 4 cups of water and all the pepper into a coarse paste. You need to blend your beans in batches. I blended mine twice so two cups of water went into each batch (To see how I wash and soak the beans before blending, please watch this video.)
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Pour the ground beans into a large bowl.
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Lightly warm the palm oil. Do not bleach it. Set aside.
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Chop the spinach into large chunks. You can use as much or as little spinach as you need. Set aside.
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Add salt into bean paste and mix, using an egg whisk so you can trap in air. This makes for a spongy texture.
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Add oil into the bean paste while whisking continuously. Mix until the oil is well incorporated. At this point, taste to ensure that it is well salted. It should taste slightly more salty than it should be. When it cooks, the taste will balance up.
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Now add your chopped spinach and gently fold into the mixture.
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Prepare your banana leaves for wrapping by warming them over a flame or immersing them in hot water. Wash them thoroughly and cut into rectangles. If using just aluminum foil, no need to do this.
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Wrap the koki by placing foil paper cut into a rectangle in a small deep bowl. The part right above the bowl should be lightly pressed to fill the bowl. Add on banana leaf cut into a rectangle or another foil paper. Pour in one cup of the bean mixture. Then wrap by bringing together all the edges of the inner foil paper or banana leaf then equally bringing together the edges of the outer foil paper to form a bundle.
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Place the bundle into a pot lined with foil paper or banana leaves. Pour in two cups of hot water, cover all the wraps with more foil paper then bring to a boil. After about 15 minutes, add in about 1-2 cups of water. Let it cook for 1 ½ to 2 hours. Be sure to check from time to time so it doesn't burn.
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Unravel a bundle and serve warm with boiled ripe plantains or any starchy side of choice. Enjoy!
To get eight cups of soaked beans for this recipe, soak four cups of dried beans.
For a smaller quantity of koki beans, halve the recipe if you so wish.
Optional ingredients you could add in are Maggi (seasoning cubes) and onions. But those are not necessary. Koki is traditionally made without them. It tastes perfect without them.
*Recipe updated after first posted on March 31, 2016.
Precious u go finish me with langa. Weh mami koki. Shiny koki
Lol langa is allowed. I miss Mami Koki...
omg. diet on break. if i no chop this today i go die
Hahahaha u funny
please can i do the koki with unpeeled beans? any disadvantages if i use unpeeled beans
Hi Ladame, you can definitely use unpeeled beans. Your koki might have little bits of the peelings in it but that's okay and the bean skin is actually good for your body. Hope this helps.
Dear i live in italy and here i only see ane item called black eyed beans o occhio nero. Is it koki ? Can i buy it and use it that way ? I miss ndole and here they sale dry better leaves from Nigeria, it's ndole right ?
Please help me understand it so that i can know what to buy or not. Thanks sister
Hi Doly, black eyed beans is the same thing as koki beans so you can go ahead and buy it.
For the Ndole, dried bitterleaves from Nigeria will be perfect. I show how to use it in my Ndole video on my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/preciouskitchen
Hope this helps
Thank you sont much for responding so early. Will follow you on YouTube facebook and here. As a matter of fact i posted on your facebook page minutes ago
Aww that's so sweet to hear. I will be so glad to see you around here more often. Off to check the Facebook post.
Hello precious am Ur number 1 fan, Ur recipes are just so delicious.
Awww thank you, Joy!
Hehehehe, this is one of my fav meals.
Yes, it's moinmoin in Nigeria, if you add ingredients lik crayfish, Titus fish, egg, liver etc, then it becomes 'moinmoin elemi meje' (moinmoin with seven spirits) in yoruba dialect.
Try it with garri soaked in chilled water, ohlala!
Hahaha Bols!
I totally want to try Moin Moin with 7 spirits. Sounds delish with all those ingredients.
It looks more like okpa than moimoi.I wonder how it will taste without Maggi because my moimoi is not complete without Maggi.
I like the vegetables you out inside it.
I think it will be a good idea to put a leaf like scent leaf in my moimoi.
http://www.CheecheeLive.com
Oh you reminded me of okpa! Yes it looks like okpa but okpa is harder than this. Scent leaf in moin moin sounds interesting. Hopefully, the scent leaf flavour doesn't take over that of the moin moin.
Precious this seems like a delicious meal, it looks so savoury, mouth watering, and shiny. our Nigerian version "moi moi " is also a good option, thank God you have tasted it. I look forward to tasting this koki beans one day. by the way great pictures, bless you Precious dear.
It is delicious, Dominika.
Thanks for the compliments, dear!
Woow beautiful picture. Just looking at it, makes my mouth watering. I love koki!!!
Thanks Ahone!
Hi Precious, how many Habanero Peppe would this reicepe require instead of Chilies? It should be nice and spicy for my husband but not burning his mouth.
Hi Claudia, one habanero pepper will be perfect in this. Habanero is quite spicy.
Thank you for your answer. I wanted to do half of the reicipe and soaked 4 cups of dried beans but now I'm unsure if i should have taken the 4 cups once the beans have been soaked? Also in case i have too much now, is it possible to store the remaining beans in the fridge to do Accra Beans tomorrow?
You actually need 8 cups of beans. The 8 cups should be measured after the beans have been soaked. 4 cups of dried beans should give you about 8 cups of beans after the soaking process. Hope this makes sense.
And yes, you can store some in the fridge for Accra Beans. I do that sometimes.
Hi Precious
Can you please make an oven baked recipe of koki beans with oven safe little bowls? I will really appreciate if possible. If not can you just let me knkw how you will go about the baking process. I trust your methods, always come out amazing.
Thank you, Edna
Hi Edna, generously oil small oven safe bowls. Pour in your mixture to fill 2/3 of each bowl. Cut out aluminum foil to sizes that will cover the bowls. Brush oil on the side that will cover the bowls. Cover each bowl with foil. Place bowls on a large tray and bake at 350 degrees (180 degrees C) for 1 hour. Check if it is ready after this then you can leave it in the to bake more as needed until done. Hope this helps, dear.
Hi precious! I just found your blog and I am so excited to make some of my favorite Cameroonian recipes here in the United States. I have not been able to find any palm oil at any of the ethnic markets near where I live and I'm just wondering if there is any good substitution for it in this recipe?
Hi Clarissa, you can actually get palm oil online from amazon.com. I suggest the Carotino brand as it doesn't have any foul smell as compared to other brands of palm oil I have tried. Hope this helps.