Jamaican rice and peas combines rice with red kidney beans or gungo peas, coconut milk, and spices.
The peas are cooked with coconut milk, scallions, thyme, garlic, and often Scotch bonnet pepper before rice is added. The result is a fragrant side dish traditionally served with Sunday dinner and with foods such as jerk chicken, stewed meat, or fish.
Despite its name, Jamaican “peas” usually means beans or pigeon peas rather than green garden peas. Red kidney beans are especially common, while gungo peas are another important version. The dish reflects African, Indigenous, European, and South Asian influences in Caribbean cooking.
Rice and peas is different from Trinidadian pelau, which is a one-pot rice dish in which meat is commonly browned and cooked together with the rice. Jamaican versions emphasize the coconut-seasoned rice-and-legume pairing.