Abará (steamed black-eyed pea cakes)

Name: Abará (steamed black-eyed pea cakes)
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 10 servings
Cuisine: Brazil
Ingredients: 500 g black-eyed peas, soaked for 8 hours; 150 g dried shrimp, heads removed; 1 onion, in chunks; 5 g ginger, grated; 80 ml red palm oil (dendê); salt, to taste; 10 leaves banana leaves, cut into 25 cm squares; 1 l water, for steaming

Black-eyed pea batter with dried shrimp and palm oil, wrapped in banana leaves and steamed. A cousin of acarajé.

Time: 90 min
Difficulty: Advanced
Per serving: R$4.80
Servings: 10 servings

Abarás opened on banana leaves, topped with dried shrimp

Illustrative image

Ingredients

for 10 servings

500 gblack-eyed peassoaked for 8 hours
150 gdried shrimpheads removed
1onionin chunks
5 ggingergrated
80 mlred palm oil (dendê)
saltto taste
10 leavesbanana leavescut into 25 cm squares
REGIONAL SWAP
No banana leaves?
Parchment paper folded into envelopes and tied; it loses the leaf aroma but cooks the same
Asian or Latin markets
Changes the flavor a little
1 lwaterfor steaming

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Pocket Chef

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The Pocket Chef swaps what is missing and rewrites only the steps that change.

Abará and acarajé come from the same black-eyed pea batter. Acarajé goes into hot oil; abará gets palm oil in the batter and is steamed inside banana leaves, the way the Bahian street vendors made it.

Method

1
- Rub the soaked black-eyed peas between your hands to loosen the skins, cover with water and discard the skins that float.
- Repeat until only the white beans are left.
2
- Soak the dried shrimp in warm water for 10 minutes to remove some of the salt.
- Set aside a handful of whole shrimp for the top.
Process the peas, onion, ginger and the remaining dried shrimp into a fine, thick batter, with no water or as little as possible.
Add the palm oil and salt and beat the batter with a wooden spoon for 5 minutes, until paler and airy.
5
- Pass the banana leaves quickly over the stove flame to soften them.
- Put 2 spoonfuls of batter on each one, top with a shrimp and fold into a tight envelope.
6
- Arrange the abarás in a steamer over boiling water, cover and cook for 40 minutes, until the batter is firm to the touch.
- Serve with vatapá and caruru.

Tips

Skinning the peas is work, but it keeps the batter pale and light. Abará freezes well wrapped in the leaf; steam it again for 15 minutes.

Brazil · Bahia · per serving

Nutrients per serving

Calories

108 kcal

Protein

3 g

10% of kcal

Carbohydrate

8 g

28% of kcal

Fat

8 g

62% of kcal · fiber 4 g

Where the calories come from

protein10%
carbohydrate28%
fat62%

Pick a target per meal to compare the recipe. They are starting points, not individual advice.

By food

Nutrients of each food, per serving
Food	Qty.	kcal	Prot.	Share of calories
black-eyed peas	50 g	39	2.6 g	36%
onion	11 g	4	0.2 g	4%
ginger	0.5 g	0	0 g	0%
red palm oil (dendê)	7.3 g	64	0 g	60%
water	100 g	0	0 g	0%

Calculated with 5 of 7 ingredients. No data for: dried shrimp, banana leaves.

Source: TACO (Unicamp), USDA FoodData Central, and editorial estimate. Approximate values. Not medical or nutritional advice.

Abará (steamed black-eyed pea cakes)

Ingredients

Adapt it to what you have

Method

Tips

Nutrients per serving

By food

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