Akara (Fried Bean Cakes)

On weekends when I was younger, I would occasionally wake up to a bowl of beans soaking on the counter. This always meant one thing: My mom was making akara. She makes the best akara, so it was always a special treat in my household.

It’s hard to perfectly describe the essence of akara, but you can think of it sort of like a bean fritter or bean cake. It consists of beans that have been soaked and blended to remove the skins, then puréed with red onions, red bell peppers, and habanero peppers. The mixture is then scooped into small portions and fried in hot oil until golden-brown.

The bean purée should be smooth, but you’ll want to stop blending just as it gets there, which will allow air pockets to form. The result is perfectly light and airy fritters, with crunchy exteriors and moist and tender insides. They’re wonderfully flavorful, with just the right amount of heat from the habanero peppers. This is one of those recipes that you will perfect over time, and customize to your liking.

Akara is said to have originated with Yoruba people in Nigeria, but it has iterations in many different parts of Africa and the diaspora. For instance, I recently learned from Ozoz Sokoh, creator of Feast Afrique and Kitchen Butterfly, that in Brazil, akara is known as acaraje, which exemplifies the ways in which African foods have migrated over time.   

In Nigeria, you’ll usually see akara made with what we call honey beans, a light brown bean with a fairly sweet taste, or black-eyed peas. Here in the U.S., I only ever come across honey beans at African food stores, so for this recipe we’re going with black-eyed peas, which is what we usually used when I was growing up. Dried beans are necessary for this recipe to achieve the right texture, but luckily they only need to soak for 30 minutes, unlike most recipes that call for dried beans.

We’d usually eat it with Bird’s custard, but more traditionally it’s eaten with akamu, which is a fermented corn pudding. I was at home with my family as I was developing this recipe, and my stepdad sandwiched his akara between two slices of soft bread, which he told me was one of his favorite things to eat when he was growing up.