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Akara, deep-fat fried cowpea paste, is a very popular snack and breakfast food in Africa. Traditional cowpea paste processed by wet-milling of soaked, decorticated seeds exhibited excellent foaming ability, high waterholding capacities (WHC), and low hardness value for akara. Intense dry-milling that generated a fine flour adversely affected its functionality and akara-making quality. Wet-milling of hydrated cowpea meal significantly improved its foamability (as indicated by reduction in specific gravity) and WHC but showed only a marginal improvement in akara texture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]