Peanut Butter Soup

My first bowl of peanut butter soup was many years ago in Virginia and this version, that I tested many times to get the flavors right, tastes just like I remember.

A lot of peanut butter soup recipes are chunky (like my beef cabbage soup) but I wanted to make it the way I remembered it, which is puréed. You can, of course, skip that step if you don't like to stray from a chunky soup.

What is Peanut Butter Soup?

Also known as groundnut soup in Ghana, peanut butter soup is a comfort food that uses ground-up peanuts as the star ingredient plus sweet potatoes, broth, tomato sauce and spices. The peanut butter helps thicken the soup and adds fiber, nutrition, and flavor.

Ingredients

• peanut butter - Go for a smooth peanut butter. You can use natural or the more common peanut butter, which has ingredients like sugar and salt that help enhance the flavor (the regular peanut butter tastes better in this soup and it's the kind I use).
• sweet potatoes - Sweet potatoes and yams are often mixed up, but they're different plants. You want to buy the sweet potatoes that have that nice and bright orange colored flesh. Yams have a rough skin and are brown in color; we don't want to use those here.
• red bell pepper - I have had people accidentally use hot peppers instead of red bell pepper in this soup, which I'm sure was unpleasant. Bell peppers aren't spicy and that is what we are using in this recipe.
• onions - Just your basic yellow cooking onions.
• vegetable broth - If you wish to use a different broth for dietary or flavor reasons, use chicken broth.
• cilantro - Fresh cilantro is an optional garnish, along with the peanuts and curry powder.

*Check recipe card for ingredient amounts.

Chef's Note: A cooked protein can be added after blending if you like chunkier, meatier soup: tofu or chicken work best. I prefer it without.

How to Make Peanut Butter Soup

Step 1: Cook the vegetables. Heat the oil over medium heat in a large pot. Add the onions and bell peppers and cook until softened (around 5 minutes). Careful not to brown the onions. Add the garlic and cook for 30 more seconds.

Step 2: Add broth. Add the vegetable broth, tomato sauce, sweet potatoes, black pepper and chili powder. Bring to a boil.

Tips

• Dicing the onion. To dice your onion evenly, cut the onion in half through the root and peel the skin off. Cut narrow vertical slices while keeping the root attached. Hold the onion and cut horizontally into it, again leaving the root attached. Slice the onion halves downward to get diced onions.
• For a thicker soup. I tested this recipe to make it thicker, as that seems to be what many of you were looking for. Here is what you need to do to thicken it:
  • Add an extra 2 cups of peeled, chopped sweet potatoes to the pot before simmering (so instead of 2 cups, you will use 4 cups).
  • Use ½ cup less broth (instead of 4 cups broth, you will use 3 ½ cups).
  • Note that you may have to adjust the seasoning if you make this change.
• Blending. If you don’t have a regular blender, an immersion blender will work well. You have more control, more room to blend, and you don’t need to worry about overheating your blender. Since the pot does not have a cover while blending with an immersion blender, be careful about spilling or splashing.

What to Serve With it

• Bread. Nothing pairs better with soup than slices of bread: try this garlic naan bread or these pretzel buns. The bread soaks up the last drops of soup when you are finished.
• Rice. Another great side dish is plain rice to make it more filling. The soup’s thickness is often compared to curry, so the soup will get absorbed into the rice in a similar way.
• Drinks. Peanut butter goes well with whiskey but if that's too hard for you and your guests, try a pale ale or a chocolatey stout if you're looking for something with sweet notes.

Storage & Reheating

• Fridge Storage: Let the soup cool for no more than 2 hours at room temperature and then transfer to an airtight container. Store in the fridge for up to 4 days.
• Freezer Storage: Freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Leave room at the top of the container for expansion. Label the container with the date it was placed in the freezer. Thaw in the fridge overnight.
• Reheating Instructions: Reheat the soup back up to a hot temperature on the stove.

Recipe FAQs

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