My Mom's One Pot Beans Casserole

One Pot Beans Casserole

I was tempted to put off writing today because I am so tired from cooking. However, the recipe for today is in honor of my mom, whose birthday is today. It is a recipe for One Pot Beans Casserole, an adaptation of the way my mom made beans while I was growing up in Lagos. When I was child, I actually hated beans. I made myself so sick that my mom gave up and I did not have to eat beans. This

is quite funny to me now because beans is one food that I adore and I try to work into my diet often.

My mom use to make her beans casserole in a pressure cooker. It made the beans come out in a melt-in-your-mouth form. It was so tender. She would add in sweet corn from a can...it was always the Green Giant brand. I can still taste the sweetness and saltness of the can fresh out of the can. The usually tomato, pepper and onion blend would be added. Her oil of choice for cooking beans is palm oil. I grew so attached to eating palm oil in beans that I find it weird when people make beans casserole with other oils.

This particular recipe I am putting up was for a day when I was craving beans. I mentioned it to one of my co-workers who told me to soak it for a long time to get a shorter cooking time. So I soaked my beans at night before going to bed and cooked it the next night after getting back for work. The 20 hours plus soaking time meant the beans was cooked in about 30 minutes and it was really tender. I also used homemade tomato sauce to cut the cooking time. I added in leeks and dried shrimps that a friend brought in from Lagos to give it a ton of sweetness. This recipe is still really good without the dried shrimps added. Also, if you can't find palm oil, you can make the beans with a bland oil that won't interfere with the flavor of the food.

Beans and Bread

One Pot Beans Casserole serves 4

2 Cups of Dried Pinto Beans soaked
1 Cup of Tomato Sauce
1 Leek cleaned and sliced
1/2 Cup of Shrimp
2 Cups of Fresh Corn Kernel
1/4 Cup of Palm Oil

Directions
1. Add the soaked beans, leek, tomato sauce, shrimps, palm oil and corn to a medium saucepan. Add in a cup of water to the pan. Set the pan of on heat and bring to a brisk simmer while covered. Keep cooking until beans are tender. With the back of spoon, break up a few beans to create a thickening effect. When the thickness of casserole is to your liking, take off the heat.
2. Serve!