Then there’s Imani Muhammad, who may be the reigning bean pie queen of Chicago. Like many black Muslims, she grew up eating the pies, made by the grandmother of a friend. But about eight years ago, while she was conducting a project on the navy bean for her day-care/home-school group, Imani’s Original Bean Pies and Fine Foods was born.
She says that in the course of the navy bean project, “we were just experimenting with it and talking about how it got its name, and the properties of the navy bean—being a staple food with the vitamins, the protein, that type of thing.” She moved on to recipes: a bean pie, a bean salad, and a bean soup. “The soup and the pie was good. The salad, not so good.”
From there, she began to consider the merits of the bean pie as a potential moneymaker.
She started production at the shared-use facility Kitchen Chicago, but now operates out of a space in the Grand Boulevard neighborhood. She eventually started to diversify, making a vegan pie and a cream cheese-frosted pie appropriate for birthdays. She has also experimented with blueberry and banana bean pies—all made with natural ingredients.
Along with her husband and another baker, Muhammad puts out about 200 large pies and 350 six-inch pies per week, which are distributed to some 18 groceries and health food stores all over the south side (and one on the north side). She also ships them to customers in New York, Indiana, New Jersey, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Pennsylvania. For about a year, when its own production was down, she made them for the Nation of Islam itself. “That was a great honor,” she says.
Right now she’s in her busiest season, pulling all-nighters three nights a week. In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, it seems, everyone wants a bean pie. “We couldn’t even keep the stores stocked last year,” she says. “I had a lady tell me that not only did she tell her husband that she made it, but she told him it was sweet potato pie.”
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