Black-eyed peas are a big part of New Year’s dinners in the
United States. And
home-cooked meals in the Deep South often include black-eyed
peas, turnip greens and
cornbread.

But University of Georgia food scientists are trying to broaden
the ways Americans view,
and eat, these high-protein peas.

Kay McWatters and other food scientists are working through the
Bean-Cowpea
Collaborative Research Support Program in the College of
Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences.

One thing they are working on is akara, a deep-fried cowpea
(black-eyed pea) paste or
flour. Akara is a staple in many people’s diets in West African
countries, McWatters said.
But it’s fairly unknown in the United States.

Southerners may feel right at home with it, though. After all,
it looks much like
hushpuppies.

But akara has a much higher protein content because of its
legume base. It has a pleasing
beany flavor, McWatters said. It’s typically seasoned with salt,
minced onion and either
bell or spicy peppers.

The UGA scientists’ past research has shown that Americans like
akara because of its
ethnic appeal. But they see it only as a snack food. The main
drawback is its high fat
content.

Other research showed that Americans would best accept akara as
a fast food or a
fully-cooked, frozen, reheatable item.

McWatters and other food scientists at the Georgia Experiment
Station in Griffin, Ga., are
trying to cook up an akara product Americans will warm up to. To
do that, they’re
studying ways to reduce its fat content and make it easy to
prepare.

One hot product they’re testing is something Holly Huse, a
graduate student working with
McWatters and Yen-Con Hung, calls “peapups.”

Huse had a consumer taste panel try variations of the product.
The peapups they liked best
were made with 100 percent cowpea flour.

“Akara may not be something everyone has heard of,” Huse
said, “but when people taste
it, they like it.”

Want to conduct your own taste test? Cook some yourself. Peapups
are simple to prepare.