Vegan Ghanaian Groundnut Soup

This Vegan Ghanaian Groundnut soup is easily one of my favourite Ghanaian soups. It is creamy, flavourful and so comforting. This recipe provides a step-by-step process on how to make one of Ghana’s popular soups as well as suggestions on how to store the soup and what to eat it with.

Veganizing Ghanaian soups were always daunting because they are meat based and finding a good alternative is challenging. However with the support and ingenuity of my mum and some persistance, I finally found a process that seems to work for me. Now I am eating this soup all the time and I can’t get enough of it . This is the real peanut butter soup, not one of those fluffy recipes that bloggers share as “African Peanut soup”.

Why Groundnut is Found in many West African Dishes

Groundnuts have been an integral part of many African cuisines for centuries. The groundnut family includes peanuts, tiger nuts, and bambara beans. It is a source of protein and healthy fats for the many Africans that subsist on them. Across West Africa different tribes within countries have their own way of cooking this ingredient. It’s in stews in Senegal, Gambia and Guinea called mafe; it in Ghanaian soups like this one called nkatie kwan, it is in Congolese fumbua, its in Cameroonian Topsi. The point of sharing this recipe is to highlight that peanut based soups are very different from what you see on pinterest. They are cooked differently with different methods and flavours.

What will you need for the Groundnut Soup

• Mushrooms: these are going to be the base of all veganized Ghanaian soups. They have a nice meat flavour, bring great texture and make a really fragrant soup base. I love using a mix of oyster and shiitake mushrooms.
• Aromatics: Onions, Tomatoes, Ginger and Scotch Bonnet pepper are essential to any Ghanaian soup REGARDLESS of whether it has meat in it or not. You cannot skip any of these ingredients, except the scotch bonnet pepper because its just spicy and if you can’t handle spice, it is not for you
• Veggie Broth: I highly recommend salt free veggie broths, either store bought or made from veggie scraps. I also recommend mushroom broth; those are usually hard to find salt free but they are great. I recommend salt free because you have much better control of the salt. You can always add more salt but can never take some out
• Peanut Butter: the most essential ingredient. You have to use NATURAL UNSWEETENED peanut butter. This is the only type of peanut butter/groundnut paste we use in Ghana.
• Dawa Dawa: This is the star of the recipe. It provides a nice umami flavour and smell that kind of emulates meat. If you have an African store around you, you NEED to make a trip. Alternatively, you can skip the ingredient.

How do you make groundnut soup

1. A few things before we get started on the method
   • The first thing you will need for this recipe is patience. Ghanaian soups and stews require a lot of patience and time. You are going to have to cook the food down for flavours to develop. In the case of groundnut soup, you have to cook it down otherwise you will get an upset tummy  (you do not want diarrhea)
   • For the peanuts, we are going to use one of the two cooking methods. This is for my Ghanaians who see this recipe and think I am not doing it the “right” way. To simplify this recipe, we will directly add it to the soup and boil it longer. You can also cook the peanuts beforehand, which I will show in the video.
2. Steam the Mushrooms and Aromatics: you will steam the mushrooms with the aromatics and bring it to a boil. Steaming the aromatics cooks them down and makes it easier to blend and also imparts some of the flavour from the mushroom into them
3. Blend aromatics: After the soup base boils, we will blend the aromatics with some veggie broth and strain it into the soup. The mushrooms will be removed to make sure they do not become mush. 
4. Dilute the peanuts: you will blend the peanut butter with some lukewarm water and broth to really get it to dissolve
5. Add the peanuts to the soup: we will combine the peanuts to the soup base and let it cook down at a rolling boil. This takes over an hour for it to cook properly. It is ready when you start to see oil collecting at the top in the form of red streaks. Because this recipe does not have meat, there is less fat hence less oil will collect at the top

6. Serve with rice or any starch. In Ghana, it is served with a soft rice ball called omutuo, usually made with white rice but we opted for a brown rice version. You can also serve it with banku (click here for recipe), kokonte or fufu

Substitution

• Allergies
  • I know I am about to get questions for those who are allergic to peanuts. To be honest, there are so many other great Ghanaian soups without peanuts that are tasty like my Ghanaian Palm Nut soup, Ghanaian Light Soup, or Ghanaian Melon Seed soup that it might not be worth it to go through the trouble of substituting peanuts. People eat a variety of soups in Ghana and West Africa not being able to eat this particular soup makes it easier to actually pick from the numerous options.
  • if you are still set on finding a substitution, food Allergy Canada recommends sunflower seeds for those with nut allergies. It’s also more eco-friendly as it requires less water to grow and less labour to harvest. I have also seen cashew nut butter works great in stews if you are not allergic to them.
• Dawa Dawa: If you do not have access to dawa dawa, you can exclude it. Like all my traditional recipes, I think it will be a fantastic addition but if you have little to no access to an African store, you can do away with it.
• Peanut Butter: Please use only natural peanut butter; peanut butter with just one or two ingredients: roasted peanuts without salt, sugar or oil.
• Scotch Bonnet Pepper: If you do not have access to scotch bonnet pepper, you can substitute for any type of spicy chili; highly suggest habanero or thai red chillis as they are close in flavour and heat. If you do not like spicy food you can do away with it
• Substitutions are welcomed, but beyond what has been referenced in this section, making additional changes or additions will change the flavour of the soup. It will still be tasty but will be different from what I tasted.

How to store the soup

Believe it or not, you do not have to refrigerate the soup. Usually soups are kept on the stove and reheat every day. You can do this for up to 4 days. I had my soup for four days and did not refrigerate it. If you intend on enjoying it for longer than 4 days, you can store it in the fridge for up to 7 days, then you will start to push it when it comes to freshness. Ideally, the soup can also be frozen and kept for over 6 months, it will still taste delicious.

Print Recipe

Vegan Ghanaian Groundnut Soup

Soup – Ghanaian

By Afia – Serves: 6

Prep Time: 10 minutes – Cooking Time: 1 hour 30 minutes – Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 cup of dried mushrooms (i use dry shiitake, woods ear or oyster)
• 1-2 cups of fresh mushrooms (shiitake and oyster are best)
• 1 large onion
• 2 tomatoes
• 2 large thumps of ginger (2 inch chunks)
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 Scotch bonnet pepper
• 1 tsp dawa dawa (optional)
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tsp cloves
• 2 tsp anise seeds
• 2L veggie broth - can also use veggie bouillon and mix with water per products instructions
• 1 tbsp of tomato paste
• 1 1/3 cup of hot water
• 3/4 cup natural peanut butter
• 1 block of firm tofu chopped in cubes

Instructions

1

Chop a quarter of the onion and leave the rest as whole.

2

Grate the quarter onion, ginger and garlic into a mixture

3

Roughly grind the whole spices (anise seeds, coriander seeds, cloves and black pepper) and mix with the grated onion mixture

4

Steam the dried mushrooms with your grated onion and spice mixture, whole tomatoes, the rest of the onion and dawa dawa in 4 cups of veggie broth till the broth is boiling

5

When it boils, and the skins are starting to come off the tomato, turn the heat down, remove the whole tomatoes and onions and blend with the pepper along with another 2 cups of veggie broth.

6

After blending, sift the blended mixture into the soup and discard the leftover fibre (I saved it for a future sauce).

7

Add in another 2 cups of veggie broth, and bring the soup to a boil for 5 mins

8

While the soup is boiling, blend the peanut butter with the tomato paste, 1 1/3 cup of hot water till it is nice and milky.

9

After 5 mins has passed, add in the peanut butter mixture into the boiling soup and an additional 2 cups of veggie broth.

10

Once the soup has come to a bubble, add the tofu. Check the soup for salt and adjust according to your taste

11

Let the soup bubble for about 20 mins at medium-low heat then lower the heat after and let the soup simmer for the remainder of time. You can add the rest of your fresh mushrooms and leave the soup uncovered. If the soup is getting too thick (close to a stew texture) please add some extra water

12

There is no set time to allow the soup to simmer. It usually takes between an hour to an hour and a half (from when you added the peanut butter) for it to cook. You will know that the soup is ready when it has reduced: it is no longer foaming and the oil has pooled at the top. You will be looking for red streaks at the top. Since it doesn't have any meat, there will not be a lot of oil settling to the top.

13

You can serve this soup with a rice ball (omutuo), fufu, banku (I have a recipe on my blog) or konkonte

14

You can store the soup in the fridge or on the stove for a day. (if stored on the stove you just need to heat the soup everyday on the stove)