Nuts About Peanuts? Try This Stew

You can hear it a hundred times but somehow it just doesn’t sink in. Peanuts aren’t nuts. Peanuts grow underground and are a legume (in the family with beans and peas). Well, whatever, they are a good thing, a source of protein, minerals and vitamins.

   I’ve often seen peanuts as an ingredient in African stews and soups. Some concoctions are vegetarian, like this one, others feature chicken.

   This simplest of recipes comes from Prime Eats, a cookbook prepared by the booster club of the 355 Civil Engineer Squadron based in Tucson, AZ. The book was published in 1999. It appears the booster club is still active but has turned to golf rather than recipes as a fund raising effort for the worthy causes it supports.

   This recipe was contributed by

Aviva Goldfarb. She is founder and CEO of the very interesting Scramble meal planning service. You can get a preview of the service at this YouTube site. Aviva very kindly agreed to share her recipe with our readers.

   So let's get on with business at hand: 

Peanut Stew

Ingredients:

1 lg onion, chopped

2T peanut oil

pinch cayenne pepper

1t crushed garlic

2 cup chopped cabbage

1 lg sweet potato, scrubbed, cut into 1 in. cubes

2 cups tomato juice (sauce or soup ok)

1 cup apple juice

1t salt

1t grated ginger or ground ginger

2 chopped tomatoes or 1 can chopped

1/2 cup peanut butter

In a large pot sauté onions in oil, add garlic, cayenne, add cabbage, sweet potato, sauté covered for a few minutes, add juice, salt, ginger and tomato, bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until potatoes are tender, 15-20 min. Stir in peanut butter and simmer, stir well, serve over couscous or rice. For smoother stew puree some in blender.

   For a far more elaborate recipe, this one from the New York Times, calls for eggplant and zucchini. 

   Other recipes include a variety of ingredients such as coconut milk, curry powder, okra, collards, spinach or kale, chopped peanuts.

   Here is one with chicken from Saveur magazine.

   And here is a Sudanese recipe calling for beef.