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Adalu (Savory Corn and Black-Eyed Bean Stew)
A luscious, slow-cooked pottage of sweet corn kernels and tender black-eyed peas enriched with spiced red palm oil.
The story
Throughout southern Benin among the Yoruba and Fon, Adalu is the ultimate midday sustenance, offering an ideal balance of protein and complex carbohydrates. Historically born as a harmonizing harvest dish, it unites dried field maize and cowpeas to ensure prolonged satiety for farmers and market vendors. Technically, precooking the harder dried corn grains ahead of the tender legumes ensures both starches burst and meld without disintegrating into mush.
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