Beans, lentils & pulses · Beans
Green pigeon peas (cooked or canned)
Small round green or tan pigeon peas, ready-cooked in cans; essential to Caribbean rice and peas and arroz con gandules.
Also called: gandules, gungo peas, congo peas, green pigeon peas, pigeonpeas, pois congo
Around the world: gandules, guandú, guandules (es) · pwa kongo (ht)
A kind of beans
Photo: Ganesh Dhamodkar, via Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA-4.0)
What it is
Pigeon peas are small, round legumes from a tropical shrub. This record is the green (immature) or fresh-cooked kind, sold in cans or frozen as gandules or gungo peas. The same plant, dried and split, gives Indian toor dal. They have a slightly earthy, nutty flavour and firm bite.
Cajanus cajan
How it’s used
- Cooked with rice, sofrito and pork in Puerto Rican arroz con gandules
- Simmered in Jamaican rice and gungo peas with coconut milk
- Stewed in Trinidadian pelau
- Added to soups and stews
Characteristics
- Taste
- Nutty and earthy.
- Texture
- Firm and slightly mealy.
- Sold as
- canned, frozen, dried
- Cooking uses
- Commonly cooked, Suitable for boiling
- Common in
- Puerto Rican, Dominican, Jamaican, Trinidadian, Caribbean, Panamanian, Haitian
Storage
Pantry-stable. Keep cans in the pantry; refrigerate once opened. Frozen peas cook from frozen.
Diet, allergens and safety
No major allergens in typical versions.
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Dairy-free
- Egg-free
- Gluten-free
- Nut-free
- Soy-free
- Caffeine-free
Nutrition per 100 g
- Energy
- 111 kcal
- Protein
- 5.96 g
- Carbohydrate
- 19.49 g
- Fat
- 1.36 g
- Fibre
- 4.2 g
- Sugars
- 2.48 g
USDA FoodData Central: Pigeonpeas, immature seeds, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt.
Substitutes
Optional — what works if you don’t have it, and how it changes the dish.
- Kidney beans (canned) — Swap 1:1 in rice and peas; larger and red.
- Black-eyed peas (dried) — Cooked black-eyed peas give a similar earthy bite.
Related ingredients
Recipes with green pigeon peas (cooked or canned)
Arroz con gandules
Puerto Rican · 1 h 10 min · 328 kcalBahamian peas 'n' rice
Bahamian · 55 min · 407 kcal
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