Bahian Abara Recipe

Bahian cuisine is rich in African-influenced flavors and dishes, which we want to make known here on Specialfood. That's why we present this delicious recipe for Bahian abará, a crushed cowpea dumpling, similar to acarajé, but traditionally cooked in a banana leaf. Check out the ingredients and preparation below!

Ingredients for making Bahian Abara:

 1 kilogram of black-eyed beans soaked for 1 night

 100 grams of ground dry shrimp

 100 grams of grated onion

 100 grams of roasted and ground peanuts and cashew nuts (mixed bottom)

 250 milliliters of palm oil

 ½ teaspoon of grated ginger

 banana leaves

How to make Bahia's Abara:

To make this step-by-step abará recipe, start by washing the beans well: place them in a large bowl of water, stir and remove the peels that come off with a sieve. Drain the beans and repeat until the water comes out clean.

Then beat the beans in the mill, to transform them into puree, and then beat them with a wooden spoon, to make them light and voluminous.

Tip: You can also blend in a blender, adding a little water.

Add the ground shrimp, onion, mixed base and ginger. Mix, add palm oil and mix everything to obtain a homogeneous yellow mass.

The next step for the Bahian abará is to pass the banana leaves over the fire, so that they are more flexible. Then wrap portions of the previous mass in the leaves, as if it were a mush, and put it in the steam or in a bain-marie, for 40 minutes.

Tip: If you steam the abara, cover it with banana leaf shavings, which help retain the steam and make the abará more humid.

After the previous step, your Bahian abará is ready! Serve hot or cold, pure or accompanied by a Bahian pepper sauce, dried shrimp, caruru, vatapá, caruru and simple salad. Enjoy your food!

If you liked the Bahian Abara recipe, we suggest you enter our Bean Recipes category. You can also visit a list of the best Brazilian recipes. You may be interested to read about the chicken stir fry recipe blogpost/ majarisco norteno recipe/ oat bread recipe/ olluquito recipe/ peruvian lemon pie recipe/ peruvian sillao beef recipe.