FAW: Nigeria’s Akara Meets Brazil’s Acarajé and its Culinary Variations
FOODS ACROSS THE WORLD (FAW) is a series curated by Kenga’s Food Editor, Ayo Akanji to draw connection lines between African foods and foods found all around the world while highlighting interesting facts about their and history and similarities.
As a young boy, growing up in the south side of Nigeria, I had akara almost every weekend. While my siblings and I did our chores, my mum or sometimes my dad would be stuck in the kitchen making akara, which we’d usually have with either bread rolls and hot chocolate or with some porridge made out of fermented corn, called ogi or akamu”.
Akara is a Yoruba word meaning ‘bean cake’ or ‘bean fritters’. It’s a popular breakfast meal in every part of Nigeria made primarily with a bean pudding base and some spices.
Nigeria’s ‘akara’
My mum would start off by soaking some bean seeds in water for a few hours. After some time, she would proceed by removing the peels from the seeds. She would then blend all the peeled beans into a smooth paste and add some spices, and some cooking oil. After that, she would beat the mixture to aerate it, and then she would transfer them into a pan of hot oil, to deep-fry the mixture.
I always thought Nigerians were the only ones with this treasure of a meal in their recipe books until I was shocked to find out that Brazilians also ate this or, rather, something really close.
For something so widely consumed across Nigeria, we know little to nothing about how or where it came from and how far it has traveled. The origins of akara can be traced back to the West African Kingdom of Dahomey, which was located in present-day Benin Republic and Nigeria. The dish is believed to have been brought to Brazil by enslaved Africans, where it evolved into the traditional dish known as acarajé.
During the trans-Atlantic slave trade, between the 16th and 19th centuries, enslaved Africans who were shipped to the Americas were not allowed to bring their cultures with them. But despite this, many enslaved Africans nurtured and maintained different aspects of their cultures and passed them down to their descendants through music, food, and other forms of cultural expression.
In Portugal/Brazil today, a variant of this popular Nigerian meal is called acarajé (Portuguese pronunciation: [akaɾaˈʒɛ]). It’s made in very similar ways, using cowpeas or beans. It serves both as a street food (it’s also a street food in Nigeria too) and a religious offering to the gods in the city of Salvador, a northeastern region of Brazil.
I also found out that a variety of this meal also exists in Mediterranean and Middle-Eastern cuisine, called fasoulokeftedes, the Greek word for bean meatballs. They're slightly crisp on the outside and creamy on the inside.
In preparing this, the bean seeds are soaked overnight in cold water, but then instead of grinding them almost immediately, just like in the Nigerian recipe, the fasoulokeftedes recipe requires you to boil the already soaked beans. After the bean seeds are boiled, they’re then pureed with the help of a food processor; another difference in cooking methods.
This recipe also requires you to sauté some fresh onions, fresh bell peppers, and some garlic in olive oil. Every other thing is pretty much the same as far as the cooking method goes.
One vital difference though is that both the outer and inner textures differ across the different varieties of this dish. For akara and acarajé, both inner textures are more airy and fluffy, while the Middle Eastern fasoulokeftedes are creamy on the inside. On another note, akara has a mildly crunchy exterior while its Middle Eastern counterpart has a more crunchy outside coated with toasted breadcrumbs.
Brazil’s acarajé
Overall, the main difference between akara and acarajé is that akara is typically made with bean seeds that are fried. In contrast, acarajé is made with balls of dough that are deep-fried and stuffed with fillings such as shrimp, onions, and spices. Both dishes are influenced by African cultu-ral traditions and are enjoyed in different parts of the world.
Akara is one of many foods that connect African culture to other cultures in different parts of the world in ways that can help people from these different backgrounds find commonality in their shared dishes and recipes.
In the stories featured in this column, I’ll be drawing similar connection lines along flavor profiles, cooking styles/methods, and use of ingredients between African foods and foods found all around the globe while highlighting interesting facts and history about their similarities.
To round up this piece, I will share a few things about akara, you probably didn’t know about. Akara plays a significant role in the Yoruba culture, as it is specially prepared when a person who has come of age (70 and above) dies. It is usually prepared in large quantities and distributed across every household close to the deceased.
Also, in earlier days, akara used to be prepared in large as a sign of victory, when warriors came back victorious from war. The women, especially the wives of the warriors were to fry akara and distribute it to the villagers.
TIP: When next you eat akara, have some yaji (suya pepper) as a dry dip.
