Legumes & Beans

🇪🇬Alexandria, Egypt

Foul Eskandarani

فول إسكندراني

Alexandrian fava beans: creamy stewed fava beans topped with garlic, lemon, cumin, and tomato.

🇵🇪Peru

Frejoles

Peruvian beans stewed with pumpkin, garlic and spices until creamy. A humble, filling dish from the coast and sierra.

🇷🇼Rwanda

Fried Beans

Ibiharage

White beans fried with onions until tender, seasoned simply; a staple of the Rwandan table, eaten with ugali, isombe, sweet potatoes, or rice at almost every lunch.

🇲🇽Sonora, Mexico

Frijoles charros

Charro beans: pinto beans simmered with bacon, chorizo, tomato, and chiles.

🇲🇽Mexico

Frijoles de la olla

The simplest pot beans: pinto beans simmered with onion, garlic, and epazote.

🇲🇽Mexico

Frijoles puercos

'Pig beans': refried beans cooked with chorizo, chicharrón, and cheese until thick.

🇲🇽Jalisco, Mexico

Frijoles puercos estilo Jalisco

Jalisco-style refried beans with chorizo, cheese, and chiles.

🇬🇹Guatemala

Frijoles Volteados

A Guatemalan refried black bean paste, cooked until thick and turned out, a daily and breakfast staple

🇸🇩Sudan

Ful Medames

فول مدمس

Dried fava beans simmered soft and crushed at the table with lemon, garlic, cumin and olive oil, eaten with raw onion and bread.

🇬🇪Georgia

Georgian Bean Stew

Ლობიო

Red kidney beans stewed with onion, coriander, blue fenugreek and walnut, served in a clay pot with corn bread and pickles.

🇮🇳West Bengal, India

Ghugni

ঘুঘনি

A Bengali street food of dried white peas cooked with spices and served with chopped onions and chilies. Often served in a leaf bowl.

🇬🇷Greece

Gigantes Plaki

Γίγαντες πλακί

Greek giant white beans baked in a tomato-olive oil sauce with herbs, a ladera and meze classic. A hearty, creamy, savory dish, served with bread, a taverna and home staple.

🇧🇫Burkina Faso

Gonré

A steamed bean cake from cowpea (niébé/benga) paste with potash, aromatics, and sometimes peanut powder; served with sauce; a traditional dish of the Bissa, Mossi, and Centre-Sud peoples.

🇳🇱Zeeland, Netherlands

Grey Peas

Kapucijners

Dutch variety of grey peas, often served with bacon or in stews, a traditional hearty dish from Zeeland.

🇱🇻Latvia

Grey Peas with Speck

Pelēkie zirņi ar speķi

National dish of dried grey peas stewed with fried bacon and onions, traditionally eaten at Christmas.

🇩🇴Dominican Republic

Guandules con Coco

A Dominican dish of pigeon peas simmered in coconut milk with pumpkin, squash, and spices.

🇪🇨Ecuador

Habas con Queso

Andean fava beans stewed with fresh cheese and milk, a creamy Ecuadorian highland side dish served with potatoes and corn.

🇲🇬Madagascar

Kabaro au Curry

A Malagasy dish of white beans simmered in a fragrant curry sauce with coconut milk.

🇮🇳Kerala, India

Kadala Curry

കടല കറി

A Kerala black chickpea curry, the traditional accompaniment to puttu. It is spicy and flavored with coconut.

🇧🇾Belarus

Kamy

Камы

Boiled peas or broad beans pounded to a coarse paste, rolled into balls and dressed with melted pork fat and fried onion.

🇹🇿Tanzania

Kiburu

Green bananas mashed with beans and served with a little meat, a Chagga highland staple.

🇾🇪Yemen

Komroh

Fava beans cooked soft and mashed with garlic, ghee, black pepper and salt into a thick breakfast bowl.

🇱🇾Libya

Libyan Fasoulia

Fasoulia

White beans stewed slowly in tomato with garlic, bzar and often tripe or lamb until the sauce goes thick and rust-coloured.

🇨🇾Cyprus

Louvi me Lahana

Λουβί με λάχανα

Black-eyed peas boiled with chard or beet greens and dressed at the table with olive oil and lemon.

🇺🇸New England, United States

Maine Baked Beans

Maine's Saturday-night beans: yellow-eye or navy beans slow-baked with salt pork and molasses.

🇸🇮Slovenia

Matevž

Boiled beans and potato mashed together with fried onion and pork fat into a coarse, dense purée served alongside sausage or sour turnip.

🇮🇳India

Matki Usal

मटकी उसळ

A Maharashtrian stir-fry of sprouted matki beans with coconut and spices. It is healthy and protein-rich.

🇲🇪Montenegro

Maune

Maune are broad beans simmered until soft and thickened with cornmeal and olive oil as a Montenegrin Lenten dish.

🇰🇪Kenya

Mbaazi za Nazi

Pigeon peas simmered in coconut milk, a creamy Swahili-coast Kenyan breakfast or side.

🇲🇱Mali

Meat in Bean Leaf Sauce

N'gougouna

A Malian dish of meat in bean leaf sauce; listed in Wikipedia's Malian cuisine; bean leaves are foraged and used as a sauce base; the leaves are cooked down with onions, tomatoes, and spices; a traditional dish that reflects the use of wild and cultivated greens in Malian cuisine; served over tô or rice.

🇪🇹Ethiopia

Misir Alicha

ምስር አልጫ

Split lentils cooked with turmeric, garlic and aromatics into a mild Ethiopian fasting dish.

🇳🇬Nigeria

Moin Moin

Mọ́ín mọ́ín

The same ground bean batter steamed rather than fried, in leaves or tins, with egg, fish or corned beef set inside.

🇦🇲Armenia

Mshosh

Մշոշ

A rustic Armenian lentil stew with caramelised onions, walnuts and dried apricots, seasoned with cumin and paprika, a vegan lenten dish.

🇱🇧Lebanon

Mujaddara

مجدرة

Lentils and rice or bulgur cooked together and buried under deeply caramelised onions fried almost to black.

🇬🇧England, United Kingdom

Mushy Peas

Dried marrowfat peas soaked with bicarbonate of soda and simmered to a thick green purée, served with fish and chips or pies.

🇿🇼Zimbabwe

Mutakura

Dried maize kernels boiled for hours with groundnuts, cowpeas or bambara nuts and nothing but salt, eaten by the handful.