How to make Akara (12 Easy Steps)

Akara is also known as Bean Cakes, Bean Balls, Bean Fritas or Acarajé in Portuguese is a Nigerian breakfast recipe made with beans, Nigerians especially loves akara, it could go with a lot of other food, like pap, bread, custard, garri and etc.

Ingredients you need for Akara

You need only 5 ingredients to make Akara:

• 1 cup of Beans (black-eyed or brown beans)
• 2 habanero peppers (also chilli peppers)
• 1 medium onion
• Salt to taste
• Vegetable Oil for frying

What you should do before you fry Akara

1. Remove the beans coat. Read how to remove beans coat for help on how to do that. It is important that you do not let salt come in contact with the beans you will use in making Akara till you are ready to fry it. Salt is believed to destroy the leavening property of beans. This is what prevents the spattering of the beans batter during frying.
2. Then soak the beans in water for 2 hours to make it soft enough for your blender. If you will grind it using the heavy-duty grinders in Nigerian markets, it will not be necessary to soak the beans for extended periods of time.
3. Cut the pepper and onions into desirable sizes.

How to make Akara

1. Grind the beans with your blender making sure you add as little water as possible. The water should be just enough to move the blades of your blender. The operators of the heavy-duty grinders in Nigerian markets don’t even add water when grinding beans for Akara. The less water you add at the grinding stage, the more the beans batter will stay together during frying thereby reducing spatter. Also, do not add any other ingredient when grinding the beans for Akara. It is believed that other ingredients if added too early, reduce the ability of the ground beans particles to stick together.
2. Set some vegetable oil on the cooker to heat up. The oil should be at least 3 inches deep.
3. Put some of the ground beans into a mortar. This should be the quantity you can fry in one go.
4. Stir the beans puree with the pestle in a continuous circular motion. You need to apply some pressure so that you can energize the particles of the bean’s puree. This stirring technique releases the gas that will act as a leavening agent to the beans particles, making them rise and somehow stick together. This will be like the yeast making the dough rise in Puff Puff or what folding does to cake batter.
5. Keep stirring till the ground beans appear whiter and you can perceive its peculiar aroma.
6. Add some water till you get the consistency shown in the video below.
7. Check to make sure the oil is hot. The oil should be hot enough to sizzle but not too hot. If too hot, the Akara will spatter as soon as the beans batter hits the oil.
8. Once the oil is hot, add the onions and pepper to the beans puree in the mortar. Stir well.
9. Add salt to your taste and stir again. Salt should always be added just before scooping the beans mixture into the oil. If salt stays in the mixture for extended periods of time, it will destroy the leavening property of the beans. This property is what makes the Akara float in the oil and prevents splatter during frying.
10. To fry the Akara, scoop the mixture with a tablespoon and slowly pour this into the oil. Dipping the spoon a little bit into the oil helps reduce spatter.
11. Fry the underside till brown and flip to fry the top side too.
12. When the Akara balls are brown all over, remove and place in a sieve lined with paper towels.

What you should know when making Akara

1. Use freshly peeled beans.
2. Use a very small quantity of water when grinding.
3. Smoothen the mix with mortar and pestle before frying.
4. Add salt just before frying.