How to Make Maafe (West African Peanut Soup Recipe) (2024)

FAQs

What is maafe made of? ›

Some versions of the dish resemble a stew and contain such ingredients as tomato, onion, garlic, cabbage, peppers, and spices. Other variations consist simply of meat and a generous serving of rich, thick peanut sauce. Beef and lamb are most commonly used, but chicken and fish are featured in some recipes.

Peanut stew or groundnut stew, also known as maafe (Wolof, mafé, maffé, maffe), sauce d'arachide (French) or tigadèguèna is a stew that is a staple food in Western Africa. It originates from the Mandinka and Bambara people of Mali.

In Ghana, they often eat it with fufu (a dough-like swallow made from cassava) or omo tuo (made from rice).

But essentially, the recipe is made up of ground peanuts (or peanut butter) with tomato paste and spices. The authentic name for peanut soup is granat soup. Granat is the krio term for groundnut – aka peanuts. While it's common practice to grind the nuts for making the recipe, any peanut butter you buy works well here.

Noun. mafe (uncountable) An African meat stew thickened with ground peanuts.

Ogbono soup

The soup features various spices and vegetables, including leafy greens, okra, and sometimes other ingredients like spinach or pumpkin leaves. Ogbono soup has a distinctive slimy texture and is often served with Fufu or pounded yam.

The humble nut is enriched with protein, fibre and healthy fatty acids, all of which are essential ingredients for the body and aid weight loss too. The presence of Omega-3 fatty acids also helps maintain a healthy heart.

In many parts of Africa, peanuts are usually known as groundnuts because the nut pods grow underground. Peanuts play an important nutritional role in many parts of Africa since they have good fats and contain 7 grams of protein which helps combat child malnutrition.

“Nguba,” the word for peanut in the African Kongo and Kimbundu languages, led to “goober,” the South's nickname for peanuts. # TheMoreYouKnow.

Who brought peanuts to Africa? ›

The peanut originated in Bolivia and was brought by conquistadors to Africa during the fifteenth century. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock. The sandy soil of West Africa was primed to farm peanuts. As the popularity of the legume increased, so did the need for labor.

Fufu is a starchy African food with a doughy, mashed potato-like consistency, usually eaten as an accompaniment to soups or stews.

Rice is perhaps the most consumed food in Ghana. Plain rice is simply as the name suggests – cooked rice with no color or taste-changing ingredients as in the case of Waakye and Jolof. Ghanaians take it with no restriction but can be considered more as food for launch. It's mainly consumed with tomato stew or soup.

Peanut stews are found across West Africa, with ancient roots in dishes made with native groundnuts before the peanut arrived from the New World in the 16th century. Maafe can trace its origins to the Mandinka and Bambara people of Mali.

Small bits of peanut skins attached to the peanut when it is ground can cause these dark spots.

fufu, a popular dish in western and central African countries and, due to African migration, in the Caribbean as well.