African Peanut Soup (Maafe)
B wanted to try different recipes since he was getting tired of the same things over and over. While I’m content to eat the same leftovers 5 days in a row, he like to have variety.
As Seattle is known for cold rainy weather, he was looking for a hot soup and stumbled on this African Peanut Soup. I don’t have much experience cooking African food and don’t know a lot about African cuisine, so it was nice to try something new!
Peanut stew is a staple food in Western Africa originating from the Mandinka and Bambara people of Mali. The stew has meat (lamb, beef, chicken) or no meat and is cooked with a sauce with peanut butter and tomatoes. There are variations of this stew in West African and Central African cuisines (source). This dish reminds me of the Filipino dish kare kare, which is an oxtail or beef stew with peanuts.
Adapted from The Modern Proper
African Peanut Soup (Maafe)
Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped (1 cup)
2 tbsp ginger, minced
5 thai chilis, diced
8 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tsp cumin
2 tbsp tomato paste
3 tomatoes, diced
4 cups chicken stock
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 (14 oz) can chickpeas, drained
1 cup creamy natural peanut butter
4 cups kale, roughly chopped
1 1/2 lbs cooked chicken, shredded
peanuts, crushed for garnish
Directions
In a large pot, heat olive oil and sauté onions until softened, about 3-4 minutes. Add in ginger, chilis, and garlic and stir until fragrant about 1 min. Add the pepper, cumin and tomato paste and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring.
Add the tomatoes, stock, sweet potatoes, chickpeas and peanut butter. Bring to a boil and stir until fully combined. Turn the heat down to low and simmer for 15 minutes, until sweet potatoes are tender.
Add in kale and shredded chicken and cook for another 5 minutes. Serve warm topped with crushed peanuts. Enjoy!
