When I was still a kid, my mother got this book in a garage sale called YES, You May Have the Recipe by Maria Baker. It literally contains all the wonderful recipes this lady has accumulated throughout the years, all by asking people for them. Well, I don’t do too much cooking, since I after all am a man (ahem!). But some of the recipes are so unique, I just had to try some of them.
One of the recipes was for Curried Peanut Soup. In case you want to try it, you could start by making a chicken rice soup from scratch, and then adding one half cup of peanut butter and teaspoon of Curry Powder. Or, you could do what I did and take a much shorter route: simply mix two cans of Condensed Chicken and Rice Soup with the requisite two cans of water, then add the Peanut Butter and Curry Powder. I see no reason why this wouldn’t work, although some purists might protest. (Tip: add the peanut butter to the soup when it is hot. The heat will help disperse the peanut butter.) Then garnish with peanuts, the recipe says and a dollop of Sour Cream.
Actually I have a question about Peanut Soup in general. I live in Michigan. And this book is the first I’ve ever heard of Peanut Soup. Does anyone know what part of the country this recipe is native to? And has anyone ever had this soup before? I am an amateur cook. And I love gathering knowledge about the subject whenever I can.
Also of interest from this book is a Curry Dip. Simply mix 1 tablespoon Sugar, 1 teaspoon Garlic Salt, 1 teaspoon Curry Powder, 1 teaspoon Horseradish, 1 teaspoon grated Onion, 1 tablespoon Cider Vinegar, one half cup Sour Cream and one half cup Mayonnaise. Chill. And you will be glad if you do. This dip is out-of-this-world. And it goes very well with fresh vegetables, which is a plus in this health-conscious world we now live in.
A lot of peanut soup recipes are listed as being Senegalese. Never been there, don’t know if it’s really popular there but they are indeed tasty. I’m planning to make this one tomorrow.
You can find any number of peanut-based sauces and stews throughout Africa. I don’t think it’d be that traditional to eat it straight up as a soup- most places would serve something like that as a sauce over a starch. But this recipe seems like a decent “inspired by African cooking” dish. In Cameroon we’d eat a savory peanut stew with chicken, usually served over plantains.
In peanut growing regions, peanuts are a staple protein (and a quite good one- peanut regions experience less childhood malnutrition.) In my Cameroonian village, people would drink peanut-butter laced porridge in the morning, peanut leaf sauce for lunch, peanut butter sauce for dinner, peanuts and dried peanut butter as a snack and peanut brittle as dessert. And of course everything was cooked in fresh home-made peanut oil. Truly a wonderful plant!
Colonial Williamsburg, in Williamsburg, VA, is one of our favorite places to vacation. Our favorite colonial restaurant is The Kings Arm Inn. They serve a cream of peanut soup there that I think is divine! There are no chunks of anything (except for the crushed peanuts used as garnish), and it’s really not hard to make. It’s very high in protein. Recipe can be found here: http://www.recipesource.com/soups/soups/23/rec2306.html
As much as I love the pseudo-African peanut soups I’ve been making, that cream of peanut soup looks really good. I’ll have to rename it for my kids though, they won’t touch “cream of” anything. Little brats.
Heh. I’ve had to rename lots of things over the years, just so my kids would eat it. Nine-year-old mudgirlwill not eat beefaroni. Unless I use the exact same recipe and call it ‘cheeseburger casserole’. My oldest, now 22, wouldn’t eat chili when she was a kid. But when I called it ‘red bean and hamburger soup’, she loved it! Middle daughter wouldn’t touch tomato sauce as a kid, 'cuz she was convinced she hated tomatoes (except ketchup); but marinara sauce, OTOH. . .
When I was an undergrad, one of my housemates was African. He used to make peanut butter soup. It was the first time I ever heard of such a thing. So peanut butter soup apparently is an African dish, although I don’t know how “traditional” it is.
My greatest accomplishment so far was curried rice which is now Princess rice. I even made a big story to go along with it (shamelessly cribbed from Mulan but they haven’t noticed yet :)).
Having lived in Indonesia, I loved (and miss terribly) the ubiquitous, hot peanut sauce from that cuisine. I think that peanut butter can go with anything (except horseradish … putting peanut butter and horseradish on a cracker wasn’t all that great). Shoot, I even put peanut butter into chili.
So, when I was at O’Malley’s Pub in Weston, Missouri, recently and saw they had peanut soup on the menu, I had to try it. It was the first time I had ever seen it.
OK, I actually tried this recipe verbatim last night. It is freakin fantastic. I cut up a bell pepper and some broccoli from the garden and chowed down for dinner. It gets the Stinky Seal of Approval.
Did I mention it’s fantastic? Use a good quality curry powder (I used Madras). I also used light cream instead of heavy and couldn’t tell the difference. It’s one of my husband’s favorite soups.
I worked it out as 370 cal per cup, with 20.8 g carb, 12.5 g protein, 5.6 g fiber, 29.3 g fat and 5.9 g sat fat. You could cut a little of the fat using milk or nonfat yogurt, I guess but nuts are high in fat. Worth it though. It’s an awesome soup.
Oops! You are absolutely correct (of course!). It is a ‘tavern’, not an ‘inn’! My mistake, please pardon.
Anyway, I’m guessing it’s a lot like, it doesn’t matter how much you love a Bloomin’ Onion, if you spend a year working at Outback, you’ll get to despise it soon enough.
I know there are people who think (not only of Colonial Williamsburg, but a lot of places) “What a great place! I wish I could work here!”
Not me! No doubt, some of the ‘period characters’ really, truly love what they’re doing. But for each one who loves it, there are probably ten or so people working there who would love nothing more than to move thousands of miles away, never to see the place again.
Me? I’m happy just visiting every few years (we spent Christmas there one year and hope to do so again), and enjoying it a few days at a time!
I think I’ve got some Thai and Indonesian recipes for curries and soups with peanut butter. I can’t vouch for their authenticity, but coconut cream and peanut butter are an awesome combination.
I’ve not encountered any foods in either country that use peanut butter. In fact, in Thailand peanut butter is godawfully expensive and pretty much a luxury product, something considered “farang food” (food that only Westerners like).
