What it is
A pale yellow bean soup made by cooking peeled brown beans until they collapse, then sieving them into a smooth purée and finishing with palm oil, pepper and crayfish. It is thick, mild and slightly earthy.
Key ingredients
- Peeled brown beans
- Palm oil
- Ground crayfish
- Ground pepper
- Iru (locust beans)
- Onions
- Salt
A list of what goes in, not a recipe. Quantities and method vary by household.
How it is eaten
Ladled onto amala beside ewedu and stew, mixed together on the plate and eaten with the fingers.
Cultural significance
Gbegiri is Yoruba and the second element of abula, the amala plate that also carries ewedu and stew. Peeling the beans by hand before cooking is the labour that defines it, and a good gbegiri is judged on smoothness with no skins left in it. It is a mark of the Ibadan and Oyo food tradition in particular.
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