When I first met my husband and he found out how into cooking I was, he insisted that I had to try some west African peanut soup. When I started blogging that turned into insistence that I had to blog some African peanut soup. That all sounded good to me, but I held off because I really wanted to try a bowl from someone who knew what they were doing first. It took a few years to find African peanut soup in the area, but I finally found a vegan restaurant in the area that made it. I tried a bowl and it was delicious! And then the restaurant closed a few months later. :( So once again there was no peanut soup to be found. I guess I had to go and make my own!
How I Make West African Peanut Soup
There are so many ways to make African peanut soup. You can add different veggies, spices, more peanut butter, less peanut butter. My version certainly isn’t the most authentic, but I love it! Here’s how it’s made. Start by heating up some oil in a large pot. Now add an onion and cook it for a few minutes to soften it up. Garlic, ginger, cumin, cardamom, and a touch of cayenne pepper go in next. Toast the spices just for a minute, until the mixture becomes very fragrant. Now you can add some broth, lots of peanut butter, tomato paste, and just a touch of maple syrup. You may need use a whisk to mix everything up. Once the mixture is pretty smooth you can add some diced sweet potato. Let the soup simmer until the sweet potato is tender and the broth is thick and creamy.
Kale is the last thing to go in. You might need to add it in batches, letting each one cook down a bit before adding more. Once it’s all in, let the soup simmer until the kale is tender.
Serve your peanut soup with rice, cilantro, and a sprinkle of chopped peanuts.
Variations
Like I said, there are lots of ways to make this soup. Feel free to switch things up and make it your own! Or try one of these variations:
For extra rich and creamy peanut soup, increase the amount of peanut butter to a full cup. For lighter peanut soup, decrease the amount to a half cup. Not into kale? Try a different green! Collard greens, spinach, and chard would all work well. Replace some or all of the sweet potato with chickpeas. Sometimes when I make this I like to slice the sweet potato into slabs instead of chunks. When serving, I’ll place a couple of slabs in the bottom of each bowl before ladling the soup over them.
How do the leftovers keep? They keep great! Just store them in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Is this soup gluten-free? It sure is! Is there a way to make this soup peanut-free? I suspect almond butter would make a great substitute for the peanut butter, and almonds would work well in place of the peanuts.
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