Accara Recipe

Accara is fluffy, tasty, vegan, deep fried black eyed fritters from West Africa. A popular street food, breakfast and a snack.

Course Breakfast, Snack

Cuisine Senegalese, West African

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 15

Total Time 25

Servings

Calories 119kcal

2 bowls One for soaking and other for the batter
1 Colander
1 food processor or blender or Indian mixie
1 Spatula
1 hand mixer or stand mixer or a whisk To whisk the batter if preparing without baking soda
1 Cutting Board and Knife
1 deep frying pan and slotted spoon for deep frying
1 teaspoon or sugar spoon To drop the batter into oil
paper towels and a platter To drain deep fried fritters

Wash and soak black eyed peas for 6 hours or preferably overnight.
Wash peas rubbing them between fingers or maybe even between palms, to remove the skin of the peas. Peas skin will peel off and float in water. Discard the water and peas skin will drain off with water.
Repeat the above step 3-5 times to remove the skin from most of the peas.
Before discarding water, add decent amount of water to peas and slowly drain the water. If there is any peas skin in the bowl, allow it to drain with the water. Do this a few times to discard all the peeled skin.
Tip - easier way to peel the skin is to pulse soaked blacked eyed peas in a food processor or a blender 2-3 times. Do not over do it. Then follow the above 3 steps to peel and discard the skin. You can pulse the peas after soaking for 15-30 minutes and then soak as required or soak for 6 hours or overnight and then pulse. I prefer the latter.
Transfer washed peas to a colander and let water drain for few minutes.

Transfer to a food processor container, add onions, black pepper, salt, chili powder/flakes if using, baking soda and process until smooth. Alternatively, prepare the batter, then add the spices and chopped onion.
Add 2-3 tablespoons of water or as required when processing and the texture should be like hummus. if you are not grinding onions along with the peas, you will require water.
Transfer to a bowl, taste the batter and adjust seasoning to taste. If you are not using baking soda, follow bellow steps.

Prepare the batter by blending black eyed peas in a food processor or a blender. I prefer not to add any spices at this stage. You will need close to ½ cup of water. Add water slowly as needed.
when the batter is smooth, transfer to a bowl, using a whisk, hand mixer or a stand mixer, mix the batter to aerate it. It will take 5-10 minutes depending on the appliance used. With hand mixer, it took about 5 minutes.
Transfer to a bowl, add chopped onion and rest of the spices. Mix well, taste and adjust the seasoning.

Heat oil in a wok or a saute pan for deep frying. When oil is hot, reduce the flame to medium.
Drop teaspoon or sugar spoon of batter into oil, fry until light brown and until fritters are evenly cooked inside. Depending on the size of the pan, can fry 6-8 fritters at a time.
Remove fritters from oil and place on paper towels to absorb any excess oil.
Repeat above two steps to fry rest of the fritters. I had to fry the fritters in 4 batches.
Serve hot with sosu kaani, Chili sauce of your choice or serve as is. You can also prepare a burger or a wrap by stuffing 3-4 fritters.

Tips:

Soak dal for at least 6 hours or overnight for smooth batter.
Skinning the peas - pulse soaked peas 2-3 times in the food processor or a blender until peas are broken into 2-4 pieces and then rub between fingers or palms to remove the skin. You can pulse peas before or after soaking and I prefer later.
Use minimal amount of water when blending peas. Too much water could result in flat fritters. Also, when blending onions along with black eyed peas, you will require very little water as onion paste adds some moisture to the batter.

Variation:

Seasoning - use a cube of bouillon for more flavor. I personally have not tried it but lot of people prefer it.
Ginger & herbs - Akara prepared without baking soda tastes just like medhu vada. So, for a variation, grind some ginger along with batter or add chopped ginger to the batter. To enhance the flavour further, add chopped scallions, curry leaves and cilantro.
Indianised version - Akara with soda tastes a lot like garelu we make in South India. It is similar to above mentioned variation but does not require aerating the batter. Also, for crunch, keep aside some peas and add it to prepared batter. Skip black pepper, baking soda and use green chilies and ginger to season the batter. Refer to pesaru garelu recipe and replace moong with black eyed peas or cow peas.

Nutrition - information below are approximate values.