As a child, rice was not one of my favorite meal (shocker right?), considering the fact that most kids go bananas for it. Not me. The only time I truly enjoyed rice is when paired with beans. On the flip side, I love love beans- still do. I cannot let a month pass , without cooking up some good old beans like this one here. And if you happen to do a search on beans here you see I have plenty around here.

In most parts of West Africa , beans are cooked  separate from rice . It’s not fairly common to see rice and beans cooked together.

The inspiration of this dish is from Ghanaian dish Waakye – A rustic dish made with rice ,  beans(black-eyed peas )  and  kanwa .

Here is my version of this spicy flavorful rice and beans. While I absolutely love smoked meat or fish in my beans; I thought it would to a good idea to make this without any fish. However, if you have crayfish do include them to make up for the loss of the smoky flavor. I did not include crayfish in this version. I added some smoked paprika to make it tastier and it always does the trick.

Serve it with this chicken here

Enjoy.!!! This recipe was update March 17  from Waakye to African rice and beans.    

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