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- If you've ever wanted to try African food but didn't wanna mess with any unknown ingredients, you have to try this West African peanut soup. Hey everyone, it's Yumna from Feel Good Foodie. And I was actually born and raised in Africa, and this peanut soup, also known as granat soup, is one that I was raised having, and my mom perfected it from making it for years and years and years. You're gonna be so surprised at how basic the ingredients are, and I bet you already have them in your pantry. But the result is a creamy, fragrant, spicy peanut soup that will take your taste buds on a fabulous trip to West Africa. All right, so let's get cooking, because all of this is already smelling so good. We're gonna start by cooking two onions.
And to the onions, we're gonna add one thumb ginger. And I like to grate the ginger, just so the flavor is not too powerful. And if you don't have any fresh ginger, feel free to use ground ginger. Now, in Africa, we spoke the local language there called Krio, and granat is basically broken English for the word groundnut, because what you usually do is you ground the nuts to use in this recipe. We like to make a shortcut here and just use peanut butter instead of ground nuts. So we want to cook the onions until they're translucent and golden, just like that. And now we'll add about three ounces of tomato paste. So I just use a six-ounce container, and I'll add to it about half of that container right into the pot. And I'll mix the tomato paste with the onions until they're nice and coated.
And I wouldn't recommend using tomatoes in place of tomato paste, because you want that tomato paste to provide the thickness for the sauce to make this peanut soup. I have here one large sweet potato that I peeled and chopped. I'm putting it right into the pot. For seasoning, I'm adding some salt, black pepper, and even a little bit of cayenne pepper. The pepper is a very important part of the recipe, so adding some fresh chili peppers is also a really good idea in here. I like to keep it tame for my kids. It's just a little bit of cayenne pepper, so it's nice and subtle, but it gives it a nice, spicy flavor. Now that everything's mixed together, I'm going to add six cups of vegetable broth or chicken broth.
I'm using some homemade chicken broth that I made with just some veggie scraps and chicken. We want to bring the mixture to a boil. And as soon as we have a nice boil, simmer for 20 minutes with the lid on. All right, time to check up on the sweet potatoes. We want to make sure that the sweet potatoes are tender, but not mushy. So you're looking for just something that's fork tender. And this right here is just perfect. Now it's the fun part. This is why it's called peanut soup. We're gonna add one cup of peanut butter to the mixture. Make sure you're using creamy peanut butter or crunchy peanut butter without too many other ingredients. So this one right here just has peanuts and salt, so it's perfect.
And we'll add that peanut butter right to the pot. I also like to make sure that my peanut butter does not have any sugar in it, because that's really going to impact the flavor of this recipe, and we're really looking for something that is not too sweet, because the sweet potatoes are already lending some sweet flavor in there. So now we'll mix the peanut butter right in to the sauce. And it's really going to thicken it and create a nice base for it. And a lot of people ask me like, "Well, what does this taste like?" Like what, it's very unique to put peanut butter in a savory recipe like this. And I would liken it to like a peanut Thai soup with like a curry texture. I think that's kind of like the best of both worlds of really what this tastes like. So we're gonna go ahead and keep mixing until that peanut butter is well-incorporated in there and it doesn't look chunky or anything. Once the color is a deep, vibrant orange.
We're gonna go ahead and add some shredded chicken on top. I cooked this earlier to make the chicken broth. And it's also customary to add some type of greens in there. So you can really throw any kind of softened greens, like kale or spinach or collard greens. I'm just adding a tiny little bit of baby spinach just to add some color and extra nutrients to the dish. And now, just give all of this a stir. And we wanna just stir it until the spinach is wilted, and it's ready to be served. Look at that color, you guys. It looks so good, and what's even better is the smell.
I wish there was a Smell-O-Vision in here, because the smell of the peanut butter with the ginger, sweet potatoes, and that chicken broth, oh, it's so tantalizing. Okay, and now it's time to serve this. It is called peanut soup, so you could technically have it as a soup by itself, but traditionally, it's served over white rice. So I've got here some cooked jasmine rice, and I'm gonna go ahead and serve it in a bowl. If you wanted to, you can also use brown rice, or you can also make this with quinoa. And now we'll pour the soup right over the rice. And keep in mind that it's actually going to thicken as it sets. This, for me, is such a nostalgic meal that brings back so many memories of my mom making it. And my mom still makes it all the time right now. So it's really cool, because it's a piece of Africa that comes with us, and we don't really need many special ingredients to make it happen. And you can go ahead and serve it as is.
I like to add some crushed peanuts just to enhance that peanut butter flavor. And also some crushed red pepper just to make it extra spicy. And this is what it looks like. It comes out so good. It's such a beautiful meal that comes together so quick and easily with pantry staples that, like I said before, you probably already have on hand. So I am super excited to try this, and I can't wait to see what Matt thinks of this, as well. So Video Matt, you get the first bite. Let's see what you think. (laughs) It's a little spicy for him, but I still got a thumbs up. It was kind of like (guffaws), but yeah, he thinks it's awesome, it's spicy.
And I'm ready to pour some for myself, as well. This looks so good. So I'm gonna go ahead and put myself a plate, and I'll see you guys next time..
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