This is one recipe for those days when you are too tired to be bothered. A little bit or pre-preparation and some off-the-shelf ingredients do a wonderful trick.Traditionally, peanut/groundnut soup is made with puréed tomatoes, red peppers and onions, beef or chicken and blended/milled roasted groundnuts with no added salt or sugar, which provides a more authentic taste. Mainly served with plain rice, also excellent with tuwo shinkafa or pounded yam especially when cooked with added leafy vegetables like spinach.
What you need
- Good quality peanut butter or groundnut paste. Go for one with no or reduced added sugar or salt. You should get this in African food markets
- Some pre-made red pepper sauce. (Check out one of my previous posts on how to make this. Using this pre-made sauce cuts the effort, time and hassle)
- Some chunky raw freshwater king prawns
- Chilli powder (optional, especially if the red pepper sauce already contains some chilli)
- Salt to taste
- Coconut oil
- Long grain rice (You may use easy cook rice if you prefer)
What to do
- Clean the prawns by removing the shell and de-veining. Set aside.
- In a sauce pan, heat some coconut oil and add a couple serving spoons of pre-made red pepper sauce, depending on how many you are cooking for. Allow that to heat up and sizzle for a short while. Add some hot water to adjust consistency if needed. Also shake some chilli powder into the sizzling sauce to give it a little spicy kick, according to your preference of course!
- Then add some peanut butter/groundnut paste, a little at a time, and stir in. The peanut butter/groundnut paste thickens the soup so the more you add the thicker the soup. Add according to your preference.
- Allow this to heat through for another 3-4 minutes under moderate heat.
- Finally add the prawns, cover the pan and simmer until prawns cook. Not more than 3 minutes. Taste for taste and adjust as required.
- Simultaneously, steam some rice with added finely chopped ginger.
- Serve hot. Hmmmmm yum.