Githeri — Kenyan Maize and Beans
Kenya's everyday maize and beans, boiled until tender then fried with onion and tomato into a hearty one-pot meal.
Method
- Drain the soaked maize and beans and rinse them well. Soaking overnight is essential: unsoaked maize can take three hours or more to soften.
- Put them in a large pot with fresh water to cover by 5cm. Bring to a rolling boil and boil hard for 10 minutes, which is important for kidney beans, then lower to a steady simmer.
- Cook partially covered for 60 to 80 minutes, topping up with hot water as needed, until both the maize and beans are tender and the maize kernels have split open. Add salt only now; salting earlier toughens the skins.
- Drain, keeping about a cup of the cooking liquid.
- Heat the oil in a wide pan over medium heat and cook the onions for 7 to 8 minutes until golden.
- Add the garlic, ginger, cumin and paprika and stir for 1 minute, then add the tomatoes and cook for 8 to 10 minutes until they collapse into a thick sauce and the oil separates.
- Add the potatoes and carrot, if using, with a splash of the reserved liquid. Cover and cook for 10 minutes until just tender.
- Stir in the drained maize and beans and enough reserved liquid to keep everything moist. Season well and cook for 10 minutes, mashing a few spoonfuls of beans against the side of the pan to thicken the whole pot.
- Finish with coriander and serve hot, with avocado on the side and chilli sauce for those who want it.
How to make Githeri — Kenyan Maize and Beans
Githeri is the most practical dish in Kenyan cooking: cheap, filling and endlessly adaptable. In its simplest form it is nothing more than maize and beans boiled together, carried to school and work in a flask. Fried up with onions, tomatoes and whatever vegetables are at hand, it becomes a full meal.
Soak, then boil hard
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Dried maize needs an overnight soak, and so do the beans. Give kidney beans a full ten minutes at a rolling boil at the start, which deals with the lectins that make undercooked red beans unpleasant. Salt goes in at the end, once the skins have softened.
Turning boiled into cooked
The difference between plain boiled githeri and the version people queue for is the frying stage. A proper tomato and onion base, cooked until the oil separates, coats every kernel. Mashing a few spoonfuls of the beans thickens the pot without any flour.
Variations
Mukimo, the mashed version, adds potato, pumpkin leaves and sometimes green peas and is pounded together. Many households stir in chopped kale, a handful of ndengu, or cubes of beef, and in Nairobi’s eateries githeri often arrives topped with avocado.
Cooking ahead
Boil a large batch of maize and beans and refrigerate or freeze it in portions; the fried stage then takes fifteen minutes. The finished dish keeps for three days and tastes better on the second.
Traditional Kenyan cookery, associated with Kikuyu home cooking and eaten across the country. Editorially researched from widely documented preparations, and not kitchen-tested by Axadle.
Naturally free from gluten, dairy, egg and nuts. Check stock cubes for wheat and celery.
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