Nowhere loves ground up peanuts quite like the United States, with countless brands of peanut butter on shelves in every grocery store. But in West Africa, ground peanuts take a slightly different form -- groundnut soup! With tomatoes and peanut butter as a base, it’s a rich and flavorful soup with just a touch of sweetness.
It’s a dish that usually starts by crushing the peanuts into a smooth paste, called groundnut paste, and it can be eaten with a number of different things including fufu (a dough-like food made from cassava) and pounded yam. It can also be eaten with a type of rice ball, called omo tuo by the Hausa people in Ghana, or tuwo shinkafa by the Hausa people in Nigeria.
While it’s delicious on its own or as a base for a stew with your protein of choice, I love using our Peanut Butter Groundnut soup as a way to dress up some of my other meals, like this shrimp bowl with charred corn, kale, and cherry tomatoes. It makes a delicious sauce added on top that really just kicks up the flavor of the entire dish!
I like to use millet in my bowls, but if you’re having trouble finding it, feel free to use your grain of choice!
Ingredients
Serves 2
1 cup millet
1 large corn on the cob, shucked
5 Tablespoons butter or oil
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
8 raw shrimp, peeled and cleaned
3-4 leaves of kale, stems removed and leaves chopped
12 cherry tomatoes, cleaned and halved
1 jar Egunsifoods Groundnut Soup
Crumbled peanuts for serving
Cooking Directions
- For the base: rinse the millet and add to a pot with 2 cups of water, ¼ tsp of salt, and 1 tsp of oil. Once the water has been absorbed, remove from the heat and allow to stand covered for a few minutes. Fluff with a fork before serving.
- For the corn: wrap the corn in foil, making sure to seal the ends tightly. Place it over an open flame on a gas stove, or directly onto an electric burner over medium-low heat. Cook for about 10 minutes total, turning every 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, and carefully open to release the steam. Once cool, use a knife to cut the kernels off the cob.
- For the shrimp: to a bowl, add the cleaned shrimp, salt, freshly ground black pepper, and 1 Tbsp of oil. Toss well. In a pan over medium heat, heat 1 Tbsp of butter or oil until melted and sizzling. Add the shrimp and cook until they’re pink around the edges. Flip the shrimp and add ⅔ of the minced garlic. Cook for another few minutes until the shrimp are opaque and cooked through.
- For the kale: remove the shrimp from the pan, then return to the heat with another 2 Tbsp of butter or oil and the rest of the garlic. Cook for 1 minute, then add the kale and ¼ cup of water. Cover and cook until the kale is soft but still bright green. Uncover and cook until the water has evaporated. Season with salt.
- Heat up Groundnut Soup according to package directions.
- Assemble bowls with millet, corn, shrimp, kale, sliced cherry tomatoes, and Groundnut soup! Sprinkle with chopped peanuts.
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