Easily the BEST Authentic Jamaican Rice and Peas
Rice and Peas is a dish that is cooked every Sunday for dinner in Jamaica with proteins like Authentic Jamaican Oxtail, Jamaican Curry Goat and so much more You can pair rice and peas with almost anything not kidding! This dish is naturally vegan and is low in fat yet high in fiber, protein, and calcium is the perfect rice dish. With flavors from fresh coconut milk, scotch bonnet pepper, scallion, thyme, and allspice.
Where did rice and peas originate?
Traditional food from the African continent, like rice, and peas first became popular in Ghana. Despite its name, there are no peas in this dish. The “peas” in there are red kidney beans that are referred to as ‘peas’ throughout the Caribbean Islands.
Originally, this recipe took hours to make as Jamaicans sought to prepare nearly every ingredient from scratch. Namely, that ingredient was fresh coconut milk. Before blenders were affordable and a popular thing, it was our assigned task as children to ox and grate the coconut every single Sunday! I know right! What a drag lol, it was like going into battle because I always had cut at the end. Meanwhile, our mothers prepared the dried red beans. Thank God for canned coconut milk now saves so much time.
What do you serve with Jamaican rice and peas?
More meals to enjoy with rice and peas are Brown Stew Chicken, Rotisserie Chicken, Curry Fried Chicken Wings and Jerk Lamb Chops all taste delicious with rice and peas but honestly, this side dish is extremely diverse and tastes amazing with any sort of protein like this lamb chop and oxtail!
What are Different ways to make Rice and Peas?
Jamaican Rice and Peas with Canned Kidney Beans If you’re looking for a faster way to cook rice and peas You can make it with canned kidney beans, We prefer dried beans, but you can use canned kidney beans instead. Drain the water from the beans and rinse thoroughly with water. The entire dish cooks up in less than 30 minutes. The downside is that it lacks that beautiful color and the flavors that come from using soaked dried beans.
Quinoa Rice and Peas– If you’re not in the rice mood or if you’re on a little health journey. Though this side dish is vegan, using quinoa is a great rice substitute. It tastes amazing also.
Rice and Peas Ingredients
Red Kidney Beans or Canned Beans– Using dry beans for this recipe will give the rice a beautiful red color. Canned beans can be substituted.
Fresh Coconut Milk or Canned Coconut Milk– Fresh is always best when using coconut milk it just tastes better, but to save time canned milk is a great substitute.
Rice: You can’t have rice and peas without the rice. Jasmine rice Is our favorite.
Aeromatics: Essential flavors needed to enhance the dish! Scallion, pimento (allspice), garlic, thyme, and salt, etc.
Scotch Bonnet Pepper: Use a whole green scotch bonnet pepper and add it to the pot without cutting or bursting it. The green scotch bonnet is not as spicy as the other colors and is perfect for rice and peas.
How To Cook Rice and Peas
Making Jamaican rice and peas is seriously easy! It just takes some extra care for amazing results!
- First things first, you’ll want to soak some dried red kidney beans overnight this will help the beans to cook faster.
- In a large deep pot: combine all ingredients except rice.
- Let beans cook up for about 1 hour on medium-high heat.
- Thoroughly rinse rice until water runs clear to remove all the starch from rice grains. Skipping this step may result in a pot full of very mushy sticky rice, We don’t want that to happen to you!
- To test the peas (beans) for tenderness just softly squeeze the peas. The peas should be soft and mushy like in your hand when you squeeze.
- Lastly, add in rice and let the rice cook.
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Easily the BEST Authentic Jamaican Rice and Peas
Ingredients
- * 1 cup red kidney beans
- * 1 can of unsweetened coconut milk
- * 1 teaspoon all-purpose seasoning
- * 3 stalks scallion chopped
- * 2 cloves garlic smashed and peeled
- * 1 sprig of fresh thyme or 2 teaspoons dried
- * 1-inch ginger root
- * 1 teaspoon whole allspice manually ground (or ½ teaspoon pre-ground)
- * 1 whole scotch bonnet pepper uncut and unbruised (green is preferred )
- * 1 ½ teaspoon salt (optional)
- * ½ teaspoon black pepper
- * 3 cups of water
- 2 Cups of rice White or brown rice or quinoa
Instructions
- Soak kidney beans overnight in water. To soften the beans.
- * Place your beans in a medium pan, add about 3 cups of water and boil for about 1 hr under a medium flame. Your beans should now be tender (test by sticking a fork into one of them and just giving it a little squeeze)
- * While your beans are simmering, you can now add your unsweetened coconut milk, and stir for about 3 minutes.
- * Then you add your chopped garlic, scallions (green onions), thyme, allspice seeds, and scotch bonnet pepper, ginger, salt, and pepper to taste
- * Add water if necessary
- * Stir under a medium-high flame for about 3-5 minutes. Then you can add your rice and cook until the rice is cooked, tender and fluffy, which takes about 20-30mins. And in no time you will have delicious Jamaican rice and peas
Video
Notes
Please do not let the pepper burst inside the pot, this will cause it to be very spicy! So if you are not a spice person this can be very bad yet flavorful lol. Make sure to wash the beans with water to remove all the dirt that usually comes with the beans. If when cooking your rice and you find that it’s still hard add a little bit of water, as needed then place foil paper or wash off a grocery bag aka “scandal bag” in the pot then cover and steam until soft.
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