Frejon (Beans in Coconut Milk) Recipe (2024)

Words still have several meanings. In this context perhaps meant to convey unfancy and humble; although as you point out, like other peasant foods' unassuming appearances, a laborious and nuanced preparation passed down through generations is often required.

This "simple" recipe with six steps and 15+ ingredients for beans. Do words still have meaning?

The actual frejon is the beans, sugar, salt and coconut milk blended. The rest is accompaniment. The frejon is traditionally served with fish on Good Friday, this recipe has it served with a veggie combo. You can make it like a blended soup or cook it further so it ends up more like a pudding. Yummy!

Effortless way to make something out of nearly nothing, dried beans, an onion and a can of tomatoes, something most of have on the shelf - the can of coconut milk being the only pricey item. Perfectly good even without the "red palm oil" which most of us probably never will have.

The honey beans I just got and cooked taste similar to black eyed peas, so blackeyes might be a better substitute for honey beans than the suggested adzuki beans.

This was delicious! Definitely something you have to plan ahead for (tracking down the beans, soaking all day/overnight). But the result was a very filling and flavorful, and didn't remind me of anything I'd had before, which was refreshing. I used diced tomatoes rather than whole, and I ordered the beans and red palm oil online. I also pureed the onion that had simmered in the beans with the beans and coconut milk.

This might be considered heresy, but butter is the simplest substitution for red palm oil - it has a similarly rich taste, albeit much less complex. Start by adding 1/2 tbs, then taste and add more if more richness is needed. Would be curious to see what others think, but in my experience annatto oil can also be a substitute - made at home with canola (or olive) oil steeped with dried annatto or ground annatto seed. But there are lots of ways to use red palm oil - worth the purchase, I think!

I used both red palm oil and dried shrimp, and I think they really add something that transforms this from just a bell pepper and onion sauté. Also used a whole habanero, mashed into sauce, as we like heat. I threw some shrimp on at the end. Surprised at how much we liked it - will definitely make again! Also, used canned black eyed peas due to time constraints. Pureed with coconut milk, fresh thyme, and a small garlic clove. Tasty, easy shortcut.

Delicious ! I substituted berbère spice mix instead of the crayfish/shrimp spices and it has quickly become a favorite family dish

@Illa - Palm oil is readily available through Amazon and in groceries that serve large Latin populations. Another thing you can use palm oil for is Moqueca, an incredibly wonderful Brazilian stew. The palm oil is really worth keeping in your pantry if you will cook Cuban, Caribbean, African or South American dishes. It comes in a small bottle, and you will find many uses for it, especially in curries.

See notes with Vegan Coconut-Ginger Black beans.

I had to make a lot of substitutions, so I can only imagine how good it is with the right stuff! In case it helps someone else that isn't doing much grocery shopping these days:- black beans, cooked from dry seasoned with bay leaves and halved shallot- reduced coconut milk and added 1/2 cup nonfat milk- no chile, double garlic and 1tbsp minced ginger- coconut oil instead of palm oil- no mint, extra lime zest

I used both red palm oil and dried shrimp, and I think they really add something that transforms this from just a bell pepper and onion sauté. Also used a whole habanero, mashed into sauce, as we like heat. I threw some shrimp on at the end. Surprised at how much we liked it - will definitely make again! Also, used canned black eyed peas due to time constraints. Pureed with coconut milk, fresh thyme, and a small garlic clove. Tasty, easy shortcut.

This turned out well, but not appreciably different from dressed up refried pinto beans. The palm oil adds a very interesting taste to the tomatoes, and the beans come out creamy. I don't think I'll revisit it.

My first attempt at a West African dish - I'm going to have to try more.Used adzuki beans (couldn't get Nigerian honey beans locally) and substituted a dash of fish sauce for the crayfish - the umami hit of the reduced tomato and fish sauce was a great complement to the rich and sweet bean / coconut milk mix.

Could you please recommend a vegetarian substitute for the fish powder?

This was good, but much milder and uneventful and I hoped for. With nothing to compare it to, unfortunately, it's hard for me to say if I missed the mark or not. The heat of the habanero did not come through, even though I minced it and left it in. Adding the juice from the half lime in addition to the zest helped, as did 1 tsp salt and 1/4th tsp cayenne. Admittedly I did not use red palm oil or garri, so perhaps that was the problem?

The honey beans I just got and cooked taste similar to black eyed peas, so blackeyes might be a better substitute for honey beans than the suggested adzuki beans.

Oh I also added some annatto powder to the sauce based on someone’s comment about annatto and butter in place of the palm oil. That was good.

Decided to make this for dinner around 5:30 PM, so had to work with what I had. No honey beans, so I used a small red bean and added some honey to taste once they were cooked (3 Tbsp?). Instant pot cooks dried beans in 50 mins total (30 to cook, 20 to cool). I added salt before the pressure cook. I used fish sauce instead of dried fish. Used fresh tomatoes and a chopped up cherry pepper from the garden. Result was A . Delicious and different.

This was delicious! Definitely something you have to plan ahead for (tracking down the beans, soaking all day/overnight). But the result was a very filling and flavorful, and didn't remind me of anything I'd had before, which was refreshing. I used diced tomatoes rather than whole, and I ordered the beans and red palm oil online. I also pureed the onion that had simmered in the beans with the beans and coconut milk.

When I see the combo of adzuki beans and coconut milk I think of a wonderful "comfort food" sort of pudding made by a Malaysian friend of mine!With beans, coconut milk, some heat, cilantro, lime and a few other things, what could go wrong?I will definitely be making this soon, especially thanks to the suggestions from commenters about substitutions that can be made!

Had just cooked beans for another purpose and had put in too much chile powder. This recipe looked like it would work, and I had most of the ingredients. I overdid the coconut milk and accidentally put the bean water in, so I ended with a thick, but yummy, soup. With some trepidation, I slowly added the herbs,veggies and lime zest ( which I had cooked), it was DELICIOUS!