Rice and Peas
Total Time 3 Hours 15 Mins
If you want to cook like a Jamaican you need to learn how to make Rice and Peas! It’s a staple in Jamaican cuisine, and a tradition on most Sunday tables. – Mama Fay
What most people call beans we call peas. For this recipe we use kidney beans instead of the harder to find red peas. You’ll need to soak the dried beans overnight to reconstitute them and then cook them for about 1 hour to use them in this recipe. Cooking the peas from “scratch” is the traditional way to make rice and peas, but for those with less time on your hands I have a Quick Jamaican Rice and Peas Recipe using canned beans that won’t disappoint.
Coconut is an important ingredient and I love to use creamed coconut. However, If you can’t find it where you shop you can substitute 1 cup of the water for 1 cup of coconut milk to get the same aromatic result.
Traditional Rice and Peas Recipe
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup Dried Kidney Beans
- 4 cups (1L) Water
- 2 cloves Garlic chopped
- ½ package Creamed Coconut
- 1 Small onion or 2 stalks escallion chopped
- 2 tsp (10 mL) Salt
- ¼ tsp (1 mL) Black Pepper
- 1 tsp (5 mL) Dried Thyme
- A few slices Scotch Bonnet Pepper
- 2 cups (500 mL) Long Grain or Basmati Rice (rinsed and drained)
Instructions
- Overnight: Soak kidney beans in 2 cups of water overnight
- Place garlic, kidney beans and water they were soaked in into a large saucepan, cover and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to Medium and continue cooking until the beans are soft, about 1 hour
- Add coconut cream and stir until dissolved
- Add chopped onion, salt, black pepper to saucepan and stir in thyme and scotch bonnet pepper
- Stir in rice and remaining 2 cups of water and bring to a boil
- Turn heat to Low, cover pot and cook until all water is absorbed (about 15 to 20 min).
- Fluff up rice with a fork before serving.
Leave a Review
No Title
I added red label wine and Jwray and nephew white rum. I also blended my cherries and raisins along with 4 eggs. I wish I could upload a picture to show the final product. Our palettes are grateful!!!
No Title
Delicious with a little alterations.
I used:
*whole wheat bread instead of white
*brown sugar instead of granulated
*fruit wine instead of rum
* 5 eggs instead of 6
As these were the ingredients that I had available.
Also, I lightly blended the raisons with the milk as my family doesn’t like raisons
And I prayed before I started as I always do when experimenting with new stuff in the kitchen.
It was delicious, my family and friends enjoyed it.
Thank you very much 😊
No Title
Lovely peppered steak, nice one!
No Title
Hmmmmm maybe I used too much bread (also I used hard dough bread) and I used brown sugar instead of white (I don’t like white sugar) but it was very bland. So I added syrup at the end (it helped a lot). However thank you for sharing the recipe. It was my first time, wont be my last. I will try again but no rum (I felt it added an unnecessary weight to it.
No Title
Great curried shrimps! Thanks! I made my own and it was quite tasty and succulent. Keep up the good work.
No Title
I have been making this recipe for years. It’s amazing! Thank you so much!
No Title
I’ve tried several of your recipes. This one has been tried and true for years!
No Title
I’ve been making this recipe since 2013. Almost 13 years later I’ve never used another recipe for curry chicken. I love it and wouldn’t change a thing.
No Title
My bread pudding turned out so beautiful, thank you so much for this recipe!!
No Title
My family lives this and all was asking when am I going to make it again