Jul 18

Jul 18 How to Perfect The Skill of Groundnut Soup.

Amongst all the Ghanaian soups my least favorite is groundnut soup. Yeah I shocked you didn't I? How? Well when you have spent three years in secondary school eating the same soup with gari, rice and kenkey it kinda grows on you. I could have sworn my blood was replaced by the brown liquid by the time school was done with me.

So here I was preparing the same thing just to make sure my skills hadn't rusted over the years. I was also hoping to surprise my boo with some local dish for dinner.

There's a secret to making excellent groundnut soup which won't see people grabbing for toilet paper the next day. And trust me it's one of those soups that can guarantee days of building a relationship with your BFF white throne with the wrong move.

The ingredients are simple at best. Your choice of meat is your own. Unable to get goat meat or bone-in beef I resorted to using chicken.

You will need :

A bottle of Judi Foods Groundnut paste. (320g)

5 large tomatoes

2 medium sized onions

1 chilli pepper (these are very special extra hot peppers)

Marinated Chicken pieces

Royco shrimp cubes

1. Steam the chicken or whatever meat you are using lightly. I marinated the chicken in a mix of ground ginger and garlic. Better to do it overnight to get all the goodness soaked in.

2. Here's the secret. Then I scooped out the sticky groundnut paste and poured it onto the chicken. Continuously stir the paste with the chicken. It's a sticky mess yes. But this is done to 'fry' the paste for the peanut oil to rise out. Use a heavy cast ladle if you have one. I didnt so i struggled 'small'.

3. Keep stirring until you see oil rising.

4. With the appearance of the oil pour cups of water in. One cup at a time and stir to ensure the paste dissolves through. I used about 8 cups. I took out the chicken and set it aside.

5. Add tomatoes and onions. I added these at this stage so as to soften them for easy blending. .

6. Blend all the vegetables and pour into boiling soup. Add tomato paste if you have any.

7. Add Royco or your choice of chicken spice.

8. Add three pieces of whole okra or garden eggs to garnish the soup. I added broccoli as i didnt have these.

8. The soup will be ready In about 30 - 45 minutes with visible signs of oil risen to the top. Keep stirring occasionally to prevent spillovers into the fire.

Prepare fufu, rice, yam, potatoes, gari balls, Omo tuo (rice balls) and anything else you would like to have with this soup. I made some fufu out of Neat fufu powder for this.