Agoyin Sauce: Yoruba Pepper stew for beans & Ewa Agoyin

Agoyin sauce is a simple Nigerian stew prepared by frying onion and pepper in palm oil. This recipe has its origin to the Yoruba tribe of Western Nigeria.

This Yoruba Pepper stew/sauce for beans is popular in the streets of Lagos and near us.

Ewa Agoyin (simply means in English, plain boiled beans eaten with a pepper sauce-agoyin sauce) food combination is simply amazing!

The word Ewa simply means Beans in Yoruba language. Ewa agoyin is also spelled as Ewa Aganyin.

Agoyin sauce/stew is a spicy sauce used as a topping for the popular West African cooked and mashed beans, known as ewa agoyin

Ewa agoyin stew has a dark and almost black color because it stays on heat for a longer time.

The outcome is a darker, gritty and crunchy stew with an irresistible aroma that comes from the fried onions and pepper.

Mashed beans are the main side dish for ewa agoyin sauce. Any beans such as black-eyed beans, honey beans, can be used.

Locally, you make the beans to be very soft and afterward mashed and spread out in a plate; creating a trench in the center for the stew.

Agoyin Sauce Recipe

It is one of the simplest stew or sauce recipes that doesn’t require many ingredients.

You can prepare it without fish or meat and it goes well with beans, agege bread, boiled yam, fried plantain.

You can also make ewa agoyin sauce/stew traditionally with dried peppers (cayenne pepper, tatashe, shombo and ata rodo, chillies)

A good alternative is fresh pepper especially if you cannot find dried peppers where you live.

If you are you using dried peppers for this stew, make sure you soak the peppers in water for few hours before blending.

Agoyin Sauce Ingredients

• 4 medium red bell peppers, (tatashe)
• 3 red chillies (shombo)
• 1 medium onion, halved into two
• One tablespoon roughly grounded dried peppers
• 2 scotch bonnets
• One tablespoon pepper seeds, optional
• 1-2 seasoning cubes
• One tablespoon ground crayfish
• 1 cup of palm oil
• Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Firstly, blend all the peppers and onion with little water and set aside.
2. Secondly, place a medium pot on heat and add palm oil into it, you need plenty of palm oil to achieve the authentic Ewa Agoyin stew taste and consistency.
3. Then, cover the oil to bleach for 10 minutes on high heat. At this point, the oil must have turned golden.
4. Fourthly, turn off the burner and add the chopped onion and the roughly crush dried pepper to the oil.
5. Now, stir-fry for 2 minutes or until the onion is brown in color.
6. After that, turn the heat on to medium-low; add the blended pepper to the oil and fry, stirring occasionally.
7. Once the pepper is properly fried, the oil will rise to the top.
8. Then, season the sauce with ground crayfish, seasoning cubes, and salt, stir and leave to simmer on medium heat to infuse aroma.
9. Though optional, add the pepper seeds and stir the sauce occasionally to prevent from burning at the bottom of the pot. You will notice the color of the stew becoming darker.
10. Lastly, agoyin sauce is ready once it is dark and gritty. Enjoy!