African Cichlids are technically Vegetarians.. It is a much better staple diet than say frozen meaty foods. When I worked at PetSmart, we fed frozen peas to the african cichlids every other day, and yes they love them. Makes a great diet for some of the protein sensative african cichlid species like Tropheus.
Nothing beats high quality pellets or flakes though, they are scientifically engineered to provide maximum nutrition for the fish. There is also a reason why they have different styles of pellets and flakes for different families of fish, ie: African Cichlid foods will be high in Spirulina most of the time..for good reason too!