In Mister Johnson, a film set in colonial British Africa, at one point the British administrator, Harry Rudbeck, and his newly arrived bride, Celia, are sitting down to dinner.
CELIA: [looking down at a bowl of transparent liquid with what appear to be half a dozen shelled peanuts sitting on the bottom] What’s this?
HARRY: Peanut soup.
CELIA: But it’s just peanuts in hot water!
HARRY: Hm? Yes, I suppose it is.
Is such a dish really eaten anywhere in Africa? Is it any good? Does the broth pick up any flavor from the peanuts?
I’d eat it - shelled peanuts + water + salt? Sure thing. If you like boiled peanuts, no reason why you wouldn’t like this.
But IME most peanut soups are closer to GFactor’s link. I actually made my own one time from some internet recipe and it was really good. Just added a bit too much jalapeno and it got a little too hot. (and I loooove hot stuff, so this was freaking killer).
That’s so funny. My coworker is from Ghana, and often talks about peanut soup. Everyone else ribs him about it, claiming it doesn’t exist. He keeps telling us he’s going to bring some in, but so far, no peanut soup for us.
As he he explains it, you saute onions, tomatoes, peppers, and whatever else you have around in a pan with some oil. Then add some broth. Then add peanut butter, seasonings, etc. Basically the same thing as in GFactor’s links.
I’d better get on my coworker to bring in the peanut soup already. He’s a great cook. Yum, potential peanut soup!
Peanut soup is awesome. There are a couple of African restaurants in the DC area that carry it, one is in Silver Spring. I’ve had it over rice as a sauce and just alone in a bowl. Man is it good.
I’ve had the Cream of Peanut Soup at the King’s Arms Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg - quite tasty! It sounds a lot thicker than the African version, though.
Yeah, Virginia has a tradition of peanut soup. You can get some at one of the taverns (The Green Leaf, I think) in old town Leesburg.
Also, Mount Vernon has an excellent peanut soup that I think is from a recipe from George Washington’s kitchen way the hell back when.
Generally, it’s a creamy soup with a strong peanut base. Rarely a full peanut, in my experience, but rather brothed up with small peanut chunks. It’s a winner!
I have to admit, I was kind of hoping that peanut soup was just as the OP described it, and that everyone would jump in and rave about how delicious it was. “At last!” I thought. “Something delicious even I can make!” Oh, the crushing disappointment of reality…
We call it “peanut sauce” (or “sauce harachide”) and it’s quite common. Usually it involves peanut paste, onions, the ubiquitous buillion cube, probably some palm oil, and fish. Nobody does all the roasting and grinding themselves- peanut paste can be bought in plastic bags at just about every street corner. When it’s good, it’s very, very good. When it’s made with the horrible dried black smoked fish, it’s pretty gross. It’s served over rice, plantains, or cassava with very spicy hot sauce on the side. It’s not much different from a thai peanut sauce with different spices.
They also make a thicker onion-y savory peanut butter that is really good. Finally, peanut paste is added to all the green leafy vegetable sauces (which are eaten just about daily) to add nutrition and make it creamy. These turn out tasting basically like creamed spinach- yummy!