Ghanaian Vegan NkanteKonto Soup (Green Peanut Soup)

This recipe is a combination of my beloved vegan groundnut soup recipe and a popular green soup called ebunuebunu.

What is Green Soup?

I vividly remember as a child my mother used to make ebunu ebunu soup, which is a green soup. The soup has a dark green colour from the cocoyam/taro leaves that were boiled and blended into this soup. it was soup we always had when snails were in season, and for some reason, always tasted better when it rained. Out of all the Ghanaian soups, it is not a really popular soup but it is packed with flavour and nutrients.

It is a soup I come back to time and time again when I need a boost of nutrients and iron. In this specific recipe, I included peanuts for healthy fats. This then changes the name of the dish from ebunu ebunu to nkatekonto (peanuts and kontomire/cocoyam). If you want to try the peanut butter/groundnut soup on its own, you can check out my Groundnut Soup recipe (click here)

What you will need

• 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 dried mushrooms I purchase at the Asian supermarket. Today I am using a mixture of tea tree and shiitake mushrooms
• Aromatics: Onions, Tomatoes, Ginger and Scotch Bonnet pepper are essential to any Ghanaian soup. If you cannot handle heat, you can skip the scotch bonnet or sub with a milder hot pepper.
• Greens: for this dish we are using turkey berries (twi names are kwahususwa or abedru) and spinach. Traditionally, this soup is made with fresh taro/cocoyam leaves and turkey berries. The leafy green is essential but both a good dose of plant based iron, which I definitely need.
• Veggie Broth: I have completely switched over to better than bouillon broth pastes because they are a great way to add flavour to soup. With this, I do not even add spices to my soup anymore. I also add an organic no salt bouillon cube for more depth of flavour. Miso is also great for moire umami flavour.
• Peanut Butter: You have to use NATURAL UNSWEETENED peanut butter. This is the only type of peanut butter/groundnut paste we use in Ghana.
• Flavour additives: For this recipe we will be using prekese (Tetrapleura tetraptera) and whentia(grains of selim). these are not essentially but highly recommended as they give soups such a nice aroma. the prekese is usually included in green soups as well as palm nut soup. Both spices have medicinal properties too.

Print Recipe

Vegan NkanteKonto

Soup – Ghanaian

By Afia – Serves: 8

Prep Time: 5 minutes – Cooking Time: 2 hours – Total Time: 2 hours

Ingredients

• 2 cups dry mushroom (I used a mix of shiitake and tea tree mushrooms)
• 2 tomatoes
• 2 onions
• 1 scotch bonnet pepper
• 1 thumb size of ginger
• 1/2 cup of peanut butter
• 1 cup of turkey berries (abedru)**
• 1 small prekese
• 5 whole grains of selim
• 1 heaping tbsp of better than bouillon paste. I like the no beef or no chicken flavour
• 1 cube of organic no salt veggie bouillon cube
• 2 large handfuls of spinach
• An assortment of fresh mushrooms - you can add as many or as little as you like - I prefer fresh oyster and king oyster mushrooms
• 1 block, extra firm tofu
• water

Instructions

1

In a pot, we will boil the dried mushrooms and 8 cups of water

2

Once everything has come to a boil, I took about 2 cups of water out of the pot and mixed it with the peanut butter. I boiled the peanut butter on the side in a small pot at medium to low heat. (this is to cook the peanut butter faster. you can refer to my groundnut soup recipe for an alternative method)

3

I then added the tomatoes, scotch bonnet and onions in the pot with the mushrooms and boiled till the skins started to peel off the tomato.

4

After I put the tomato, onions, scotch bonnet and ginger in a blender and blended with 3 cups of water.

5

I strained the mixture back into the soup and brought the soup to a boil.

6

As the soup is boiling, I prepped my prekese by "roasting it" I used matches but a lighter works well. just run the flame on the prekese. This releases the aroma.

7

After roasting, I added my prekese, grains of selim, better than bouillon and bouillon cube.

8

By now, the peanut butter would have been cooking on the side for about 20 minutes, you can add the peanut mixture into the larger pot and let it boil.

9

You can also add in your fresh mushroom and tofu.

10

Let everything boil till the foam starts to disappear and oil starts to pool at the top.

11

In a separate pot, boil the spinach and turkey berries in water for about 10 minutes, till the turkey berries are tender

12

Transfer the turkey berries, spinach and about 1/2 cup of the water it was boiled into a blender. Blend and strain back into the pot. I also added 1/2 of the leftover fibre in the strainer to the soup. (This is my preference but if you want a lighter soup, you can discard everything left over in the strainer)

13

Let everything simmer for 10-15 minutes, when oil start to pool to the top.

14

Serve with fufu or rice.

Notes

Turkey berries are optional. They can be found fresh at some African stores but most often can be canned. Please do not buy dry turkey berries (gnangnan) these are for an Ivorian dish and look red