Sierra Leone – Binch

by Bob Huyu

Binch is another dare cuisine from Sierra Leone. It is comprises of beans and spices served over with cassava or yams. It’s main ingrediwnt is black eye beans.

Sierra Leone is a country in the African continent and it is located in the western coast of the continent. Sierra Leone is bordered on the northeast by Guinea, on the south by Liberia and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean.

Traditionally, binch cuisine was counted as among the best respected dishes because of the apperance of the beans. Some people called it as “eyed beans, to cleans the in”, meaning you eat them and they clean your insides from diseases and bad lucks.

The dish can stand as beans only, however yams and cassava will fill the sound of the cuisine itself.

Beans, cassava and yams together they give a strong morning breakfast to start your day with strength, taste and hearty smile. Mind you that in our homes in Sierra Leone it is milk that takes all the drinks part concern with the Binch dish, can’t tell the real taste it provides.

Welcome to the kitchen where every dish is a home, learn and taste this flavor from Sierra Leone from simple, easy and smooth to flow with preparation methods.

Prepare the followings

• 1/2 kg of black eye beans
• 3 big yams
• 1 long cassava
• 2 tomatoes
• 2 bulb onions
• palm oil
• pepper powder
• milk (not necessary)
• salt
• water

Cooking

• Wash beans to be sure that you remove any sand and stones.
• Add water to cover beans at 2 inch, boil up beans.
• While beans are boiling, peel off yam and cassava. Take another pot and piece them into the pot, add salt and boil it with amount of water until ready.
• It will take around 30-40 minutes for yam and cassava to be ready while about 2 hours for beans.
• Once beans are ready, piece onions into the pot containing beans, make sure the soup is enough.
• Boil for 3 minutes and then add palm oil, salt and tomatoes, boil for 10 minutes then mix.
• Make a flavor paste from the beans by smashing some beans if you get a hard ones. Sometimes peanut or milk may add another required taste in the dish and give an attractive soup texture.
• After simmer beans for about 5 minutes, our cuisine will be ready.

Sometimes, the ingredients were cooked altogether until ready, but for that style, it needs an expert to balance both beans cooks and yam or cassava cooks. Enjoy the dish.