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AI-generated photograph: Golden round akara fritters stacked on a small matte cream plate, one broken open to show the fluffy pale inside flecked with red chilli

Home · Recipes · Akara bean fritters

Nigerian · Breakfast

Akara bean fritters

whipped black-eyed bean · scotch bonnet · golden crust

AI-generated photograph

Golden Nigerian fritters of whipped black-eyed beans, onion and chilli, crisp outside and fluffy inside. A street breakfast all over Nigeria, best eaten hot.

Contains: none of the 14 allergens, as written. None of the 14 allergens is in this recipe as written.

Ingredients

  • 250g dried black-eyed beans
  • 1 small onion, roughly chopped
  • 1 scotch bonnet chilli (ata rodo), seeds out for a milder taste
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • About 750ml vegetable oil, for deep frying

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Let's cook

  1. Soak the beans in plenty of cold water for at least 1 hour, or overnight.
  2. Peel the beans. Take handfuls of soaked beans and rub them hard between your palms so the skins slip off. Fill the bowl with water: the skins float to the top, so pour them away. Repeat until almost all the beans are white. This takes about 15 minutes and makes the akara light.
  3. Drain the beans well. Blend them with the onion, scotch bonnet and 4 tablespoons of cold water to a thick, smooth paste. Add more water only a spoonful at a time: the paste should hold its shape on a spoon.
  4. Tip the paste into a bowl and add the salt. Beat it hard with a wooden spoon or hand whisk for 3 to 4 minutes, until it is paler and full of air. This whipping is what makes akara fluffy.
  5. Heat the oil in a deep pan, no more than a third full, to 170C, or until a drop of paste sizzles and rises to the top at once.
  6. Drop in heaped tablespoons of the paste, 5 or 6 at a time so the pan is not crowded. Fry for 3 to 4 minutes, turning once, until deep golden all over.
  7. Lift them out with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper. Serve hot.

Tips

  • Never leave hot oil alone, and keep children away from the pan.
  • In Nigeria akara is eaten with pap (a smooth corn porridge, also called ogi) or tucked into soft bread.
  • Add the salt just before whipping and frying; salted paste left standing turns watery.

Swaps

  • Milder: leave out the scotch bonnet and blend in a quarter of a red pepper instead.
  • Extra flavour: stir 2 finely chopped spring onions into the whipped paste.

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