Peanut soup—groundnut soup in many West African kitchens—appears across a number of countries in that region. Recipes shift with locality and ethnic group, yet peanuts remain the constant. In Ghana the method itself differs somewhat from the one a mother passed down to her daughters in the United States: there, peanuts are roasted first, then crushed together with water.
That peanut-and-water paste goes into a pot and is stirred without pause as it cooks down and begins to thicken. It is then ladled into a second pot holding a homemade broth in which assorted meats and dried fish have been simmering over a coal pot.
The mother's approach is the quicker one: natural peanut butter from the supermarket, blended up with peppers and garlic. The daughter's version is a shortcut too, but her broth gets its character from smoked turkey wings, which she prizes for the flavor they lend.
Info
- Cook time: 30 minutes
- Total time: 1 hour
- Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
- 2 pounds smoked turkey wings, cut crosswise into 3 or 4 pieces each (your butcher can do this)
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 small onion
- One 3-ounce piece ginger, peeled
- 1 habanero pepper, optional
- 1 cup organic natural peanut butter (see Cook's Note)
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1/2 cup tomato sauce
- 8 ounces baby bella mushrooms, optional
- Fufu, omo tuo or steamed rice, for serving
Instructions
- Rinse the smoked turkey and put it in a large pot with the salt. Halve the onion: add one half to the pot whole, chop the other half and add that as well. Add the ginger and, if you like heat, the habanero, then pour in enough water to cover. Cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes, until the onion turns translucent, the fat starts rendering from the wings and the broth smells strongly aromatic.
- If you used the habanero, fish it out and put it in a blender or food processor. Add the peanut butter, garlic and 3 cups water and blend for 1 minute. Stir this into the broth—it will foam and bubble at the surface. Keep stirring the whole time, about 5 minutes, so it doesn't boil over; the foam subsides somewhat and the soup settles.
- Take out the ginger and add it to the same blender (cut it smaller first if you like) along with 2 cups of the soup; blend until smooth and stir back in. Put the reserved onion half in the blender with 1 cup of the soup, blend smooth and stir into the pot. Stir in the tomato sauce and let the soup simmer until it begins to thicken, roughly 5 minutes.
- If you're using the mushrooms, stir them in, cover and simmer for about 5 minutes, then uncover (if you're skipping the mushrooms, go straight to the next step).
- Simmer over medium-low heat until the meat and the mushrooms, if using, are tender and small patches of oil rise to the surface, about 10 minutes. Add salt to taste if needed. Serve with fufu, omo tuo or steamed rice.
Notes
All-natural peanut butter matters here. Peanuts alone should be the ingredient list, or peanuts plus sea salt. Skip any peanut butter containing honey, sugar or other additives, as these can change how the soup tastes.
