Githeri – Kenyan Vegetable Bean Stew

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Last Updated on November 10, 2021 by Chef Mireille

Githeri – Kenyan Vegetable Bean Stew is a hearty one pot meal that is perfect for Meatless Monday.

I have taken over managing a Food Blogger Recipe Swap monthly event. It is a great way to encourage the food blogging community and make some new friends in the process. Not to mention, discovering some new recipes in the process.

I hope you enjoy my take on these recipes I will be presenting from other bloggers.

This month I am cooking from Mayuri’s Jikoni. I am very familiar with Mayuri due to our membership in another group and was excited to cook from her blog. Mayuri lives in Kenya and so you will find a diverse mix of Indian, African and international recipes on her blog.

Since we are coming up on Black History Month in February, I decided I wanted to cook up my version of one of her African recipes.

I quickly decided upon Githeri – a healthy vegetable stew of beans and vegetables. Although meat is sometimes added to the stew, with all the beans, I felt it had enough protein in it and additional meat was not necessary. This is a great option for Meatless Monday.

Githeri is a Kenyan recipe and by the way, if you would like to learn a little more about Kenyan food, you should check out one of my favorite You Tube channels – migrationology. He travels all over the world and eats – now isn’t that a great job! Anyway, he did a series on Kenya and Kenyan street food – I think you will enjoy the video as much as I did!

This is not the first time I have explored Kenyan cuisine. Do check out my other Kenyan recipes for Potato Bhajia (Potato Fritters) & Chicken Mung Bean Stew.

White Corn

In Africa, white corn is more popular than the sweet yellow corn we have here in America. Since fresh white corn is not available here, I had to decide what were the best substitutes I could come up with. There are two options we have here:

  • Hominy Corn – Hominy corn is basically what grits are made from and is also used in the popular Mexican soup, pozole. You can usually find cans of hominy corn in the canned bean section of the supermarket.
  • Choclo Corn – Choclo is a type of white corn from South America. It has very large kernels. You can usually find choclo either dried or frozen in Latin American markets like Mi Tierra, here in the NYC area. I used this chocle corn in my Githeri – Kenyan Vegetable Bean Stew.

making Githeri LR
Other than the corn, most of the other ingredients are readily available.

Variations

What’s great is that this recipe is so customizable to what you have on hand. I used white kidney beans but any beans can be used like black beans, navy beans, black eyed peas, cranberry beans or any other firm bean. I used pumpkin, but other starchy vegetables like plantain, breadfruit or cassava (yuca) can also be used.

You can even make this come together faster by using all canned beans if you like!

HOW TO MAKE GITHERI – KENYAN VEGETABLE BEAN STEW

  • Saute onions and garlic.
  • Add tomatoes and cook until mushy.
Pastel Birthday Photo Collage
  • Add pumpkin, cooked beans, corn, water and at the last stage, you add spinach.
Pastel Birthday Photo Collage (1)

What a delicious, hearty and filling stew!

Githeri LR

With very basic simple ingredients and just a few spices, they create a marriage of delicious flavors.
Githeri LR 3

Simple and quick and yet oh so delicious!
Githeri LR 2

Have you tried instacart yet? It’s how I get all of my fresh grocery items delivered within 2 hours!

Githeri - Kenyan Vegetable Bean Stew
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5 from 4 votes
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Githeri – Kenyan Vegetable Bean Stew

Githeri – Kenyan Vegetable Bean Stew is a one pot meal packed with protein. A healthy and delicious meal.
Total Time1 hour 30 minutes
Course: Stew
Cuisine: African
Servings: 4 people
Calories: 218.67kcal

Ingredients

Bean Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup canneloni/ white kidney beans soaked overnight
  • 1/2 cup frozen white corn choclo or hominy
  • 2 garlic cloves

Stew Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • 1 chopped onion
  • 5 finely chopped garlic cloves
  • 2 finely chopped tomatoes
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup canned pigeon peas frozen can also be used
  • 1 cup chopped pumpkin
  • 1 cup baby spinach

Instructions

  • To make the beans, combine beans and garlic in a large pot of water.
  • Bring to a boil.
  • Reduce to a simmer and cook until beans are tender, approximately 1 hour.
  • Add corn and simmer another 5 minutes, until heated through.
  • Drain and set aside.
  • In a large pot, heat oil.
  • Add onion and garlic and saute until softened.
  • Add tomatoes, coriander, cumin, turmeric and salt.
  • Cover and cook on medium low heat for 5-10 minutes, until tomatoes are very soft and mushy.
  • Add cooked beans/corn, pigeon peas, pumpkin and 2 cups water. Bring to a boil.
  • Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, until pumpkin is fork tender.
  • Add spinach and cook for 1-2 minutes until spinach is wilted.
  • Serve warm.

Notes

Any kind or beans besides canneloni beans can be used like black beans, navy beans, cranberry beans, etc.
Prep time can be eliminated if you use canned beans.
Instead of pumpkin, cassava (yuca), plantain or breadfruit can also be used.
Meat can also be added to the stew if desired.

Nutrition

Calories: 218.67kcal | Carbohydrates: 30.7g | Protein: 8.88g | Fat: 8.04g | Saturated Fat: 0.66g | Sodium: 462.25mg | Fiber: 9.27g | Sugar: 5.42g
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Do check out the other delicious recipes from this month’s Recipe Swap!

Recipe Swap Recipes

Don’t forget to visit the RECIPE INDEX with over 1000 recipes from around the world including lots of Vegetarian Recipes and Gluten Free Recipes!

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Comments

  1. This is a hearty filling stew and a very healthy one too. I loved the foot note giving the various potions to swap, which makes it even more easy to work with what is regional yet have a flavour of the beautiful stew. Also, a wonderful adventure here on the recipe swap and learning a lot from it. Thankyou

  2. Mireille thank you so much for trying out a Kenyan recipe from my blog. Githeri is such a healthy meal, mostly enjoyed on its own as it’s a balanced meal with carbs, protein and the vitamins and minerals. Recently, had gone to stay at the beach hotel for a weekend and they were demonstrating how to make it to the tourists. They loved it. Meat is usually added when they make it for celebrations like weddings, Christmas etc.

  3. The stew looks delicious…I’m glad to be a food blogger to know all these recipes from world over…This kenyan vegetable stew is worth giving a try

  4. 5 stars
    My Family Loved it. I am definitely sharing Guys, Thanks For sharing this Great Recipe. this recipe and this website with my friend. Hope they also love it. Thank you again for sharing such a great recipe.

5 from 4 votes (2 ratings without comment)

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