Groundnut Soup

Last night, I made ground nut soup – a favorite Salone recipe. My co-worker, Nathlyn, helped me buy some of the ingredients and gave me detailed instructions, but I made it all by myself in my little kitchenette.

An early decision point in discussions about this dish was on what type of meat I wanted to include. Many local dishes are rice and sauce. The “sauce” is often named for the vegetable but always includes meat of various types. There are potatoes leaves, cassava leaves, okra, and more. All these dishes are sort of a stew. When I asked Nathlyn what kind of meat she usually uses and she said it could be anything — fish, chicken, pig meat, cow meat, cow feet, cow innards…

I said – how about chicken!

In addition to the meat, you need onions, tomato paste, thyme or rosemary, black pepper, salt, groundnut paste (peanut butter), and maggie. Maggie is MSG – a vital ingredient in all dishes. I almost forgot the pepper. In this case, its a type of hot pepper. You can also add bell pepper.

This little pepper certainly has some heat. My fingertips still burn from chopping one up last night.

The next step is to season and parboil the chicken. I salted and peppered 2 chicken legs (chicken leg here means the whole leg) that I cut apart into leg and thigh and then partially cooked it in some water. I sautéed 2 medium onions and the hot pepper in some olive oil. Nathlyn uses peanut oil but I suspect many use palm oil.

Once the onions were translucent, I added a generous tablespoon of tomato paste, a big pinch of thyme, half a cube of maggie and lots of black pepper, as well as a couple of cups of water. I used the water I had cooked the chicken in. I also added the chicken and simmered for 15 minutes until the chicken was completely cooked.

The last step is to add the groundnut paste. The groundnut paste tastes like (and I suspect is) plain ground peanuts without added salt or sugar. Per Nathlyn’s instructions, I used 3 tablespoons of groundnut paste mixed with hot water to thin it out. She had instructed me to simmer with the ground nut paste until I smelled the aroma. I simmered it for another 5 minutes. She told me this morning that if you don’t cook the groundnuts enough you’ll get the runs. I didn’t so must have done it right.

I ate it for dinner over rice. I don’t know what it supposed to taste like but it was delicious!