Groundnut Soup (Nkatenkwan): Ghanaian Chicken Peanut Soup

Groundnut soup is Ghana’s peanut soup, called nkatenkwan in Akan (Wikipedia): chicken in a loose, orange-brown broth of groundnut paste, tomatoes, onion and scotch bonnet, ladled around fufu or omo tuo. This recipe steams the chicken in its own juices and boils and blends the vegetables. The groundnut paste cooks in a separate pan until its oil rises, and then everything simmers together.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 80 minutes | Total Time: 100 minutes | Servings: 6

Difficulty: Easy | Calories: ~550 per serving

How Thick Should Ghanaian Groundnut Soup Be?

Looser than a stew. In Ewe the dish is called Azidetsi, and in Ghana it is often eaten with fufu, omo tuo and banku and is often very spicy (Wikipedia). BusinessDay describes it as a swallow dish, served with fufu, rice balls, banku, kenkey or kokonte, and says the consistency can range from a thin broth to a thick stew depending on preference (BusinessDay).

Rachel of tastycurls, in her omo tuo and nkate nkwan recipe for Le Creuset, keeps adding water whenever the pot thickens. Her tip says the soup should have “a milky, velvety smooth consistency. Not too thick, not too runny” (Le Creuset).

Aim for single cream. A spoon dipped in the pot should come out coated, with the soup running off it in a steady stream rather than clinging. A ball of omo tuo dropped in the bowl should stay whole, with soup pooling around it. Peanut solids keep thickening as the soup simmers and again as it cools, so add hot water near the end rather than at the start.

Peanuts reached Africa from South America centuries ago and replaced the native Bambara groundnut, according to food writer Hattie Garlick in Talking of Food. Citing Fran Osseo-Asare, founder of the African Culinary Network Betumi, she adds that around the same time the tsetse fly made cattle-rearing impossible in much of Ghana. With no milk to make soups rich and creamy, cooks tried melon and okra, but ground peanuts were by far the most successful solution (Talking of Food).

Groundnut Paste or Peanut Butter?

Either, as long as it is unsweetened. The classic method starts from whole nuts. Alice Dede’s 1969 cookbook Ghanaian Favourite Dishes, quoted in Talking of Food, says: “Roast and peel the groundnuts and pound them till they look like melted chocolate.” The same piece quotes Connie Smith, who learned the soup from Mama Juliet of Asamankese. In Ghana, she says, it takes a long time to cook because the ingredients are usually ground by hand, but you can cheat with peanut butter or a blender (Talking of Food).

Current recipes take the shortcut. BusinessDay lists “natural unsweetened groundnut paste (peanut butter)” (BusinessDay), and Le Creuset’s recipe accepts groundnut paste or smooth peanut butter, natural, with no sugar added (Le Creuset). A sweetened sandwich spread gives you a sweet soup. If your jar is salted, hold back half the salt and season at the end.

Making groundnut paste at home? Roast 2 cups of shelled raw peanuts in one layer at 350°F (175°C), shaking the tray once, until golden all through, 15 to 20 minutes. Rub off the skins in a clean towel. Blend the warm nuts, scraping down every minute, until the crumbs turn into a paste that pours slowly off the spatula. Two cups of nuts give roughly the 1 cup of paste this recipe needs.

Why Cook the Groundnut Paste Separately?

In a small pan of its own, the paste gets your full attention and can’t hide under chicken pieces and catch. BusinessDay’s method loosens it with 2 cups of water and 1 tablespoon of tomato paste, then heats it on its own, stirring constantly. After about 15 to 20 minutes it thickens and a layer of clear oil rises to the surface (BusinessDay). Step 3 below follows that.

Keep the lid off. Le Creuset’s recipe warns that the groundnut mixture will foam up and rise as it boils, and to keep stirring so the bottom doesn’t burn (Le Creuset). Use a flat-ended wooden spoon and drag it across the whole base of the pan, not just the middle.

The video takes a slightly different route. In its description, Nanaaba’s Kitchen marinates a whole hen and dissolves 1 cup of peanut butter in half a litre of water. The boiled vegetables are tomatoes, onion, ginger, aubergine, red and green bell pepper and habanero with basil. Onion, ginger and garlic are caramelised in oil, ground, and added when the oil resurfaces or toward the end of cooking. Total cooking time: 1 hr 15 mins (Nanaaba’s Kitchen).

Ingredients for Groundnut Soup

For the Chicken:

2 pounds (900 g) bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 piece fresh ginger (2 inches / 5 cm), peeled
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1/4 cup (60 ml) water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt, plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

For the Soup Base:

4 medium tomatoes (about 1 1/4 pounds / 570 g), whole
1 medium onion, peeled and halved
2 scotch bonnet peppers, whole
2 garden eggs (African eggplants), stems removed (optional)
4 cups (950 ml) water for boiling
4 cups (950 ml) water for simmering, plus more as needed

For the Groundnut Paste:

1 cup (260 g) unsweetened groundnut paste or natural smooth peanut butter
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 cups (475 ml) water for the paste

For Serving:

Omo tuo (rice balls), fufu or banku, to serve

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Season and Steam the Chicken

1Blend the chopped onion, ginger and garlic with 1/4 cup (60 ml) of water until smooth. Put the chicken in a 6-quart (5.7 L) enamelled cast-iron pot, add the blended mixture, the salt and the white pepper, and turn the pieces with your hands until every one is coated. Cover and set over medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring twice. The chicken is ready for the next step when it is opaque outside and sitting in its own juices.

Two hands turning raw chicken drumsticks coated in blended onion, ginger and garlic inside a cream enamelled cast-iron pot on a gas stove, its lid propped beside it and small glass bowls of salt and pepper on the wooden counter — Step 1- Season and Steam the Chicken

Step 2: Boil the Tomatoes, Onion and Peppers

2Add the whole tomatoes, the halved onion, the scotch bonnets and the garden eggs to the pot with the chicken. Pour in 4 cups (950 ml) of water, let it come up to a boil, then lid the pot and keep it at a simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. The vegetables are done when the tomato skins split and a fork slides easily into the garden eggs.

A hand holding a slotted spoon over the cream enamelled cast-iron pot on a gas stove, where chicken pieces, split red tomatoes, two pale garden eggs, a halved onion and an orange scotch bonnet simmer in cloudy water — Step 2- Boil the Tomatoes, Onion and Peppers

Step 3: Cook the Groundnut Paste

3While the vegetables boil, whisk the groundnut paste, tomato paste and 2 cups (475 ml) of water in a medium saucepan until no lumps are left. Keep the burner at medium-low and stay with the pan for the next 15 to 20 minutes, sweeping a flat wooden spoon over its base the whole time. It will foam, then settle, thicken and darken a shade; stop when a thin layer of clear oil gathers at the edges. Turn the heat down if it spits or starts to catch.

A hand stirring thick, light brown groundnut paste with a wooden spatula in a cream enamelled saucepan on a gas stove, a ring of clear oil showing at the edges and a jar of peanut paste on the counter behind — Step 3- Cook the Groundnut Paste

Step 4: Blend, Combine and Simmer

4Lift the tomatoes, onion, garden eggs and one scotch bonnet out with a slotted spoon, leaving the second pepper in the pot. Blend them with a ladle of the cooking liquid until smooth, then pour them back through a sieve, pressing on the pulp. Scrape in the cooked groundnut paste and stir in 4 cups (950 ml) of water. Once it boils, lower the heat to medium-low and leave the lid off for 40 minutes, scraping the bottom with the spoon every 10 minutes. It is done when the foam has gone, the chicken is tender and specks of red-orange oil float on the surface. If the soup gets thicker than single cream, add hot water 1/2 cup (120 ml) at a time.

A hand lifting a wooden ladle of orange-brown groundnut soup that runs back in a stream into the cream enamelled cast-iron pot, where chicken pieces and a whole scotch bonnet simmer under specks of red oil — Step 4- Blend, Combine and Simmer

Step 5: Serve with Omo Tuo or Fufu

5Taste and add salt if needed, then lift out the whole scotch bonnet; for a hotter pot, blend both peppers in step 4. Set a ball of omo tuo or fufu in each deep bowl and ladle the soup and chicken around it. Each bowl of soup comes to about 550 calories before the rice ball or fufu.

A hand pouring a wooden ladle of orange-brown groundnut soup over and around a white ball of omo tuo in an off-white bowl that already holds a chicken drumstick, with a second rice ball on a side plate and the cream pot behind — Step 5- Serve with Omo Tuo or Fufu

Frequently Asked Questions

What do you serve with groundnut soup?

A swallow: fufu, omo tuo (rice balls), banku, kenkey or kokonte, according to BusinessDay (BusinessDay). Omo tuo is rice cooked with more water than usual, beaten smooth and shaped into sizable balls, and in Ghana it is usually served with groundnut or palm nut soup (Wikipedia). Talking of Food’s recipe puts it simply: the ball should sit like an island in the soup (Talking of Food).

How do you know when groundnut soup is ready?

Look for oil on top. BusinessDay’s recipe says the soup is done when the foam disappears and red oil pools on the surface (BusinessDay). Le Creuset’s recipe adds a colour change: specks of red oil appear and the soup turns darker (Le Creuset). In this recipe that takes about 40 minutes of simmering after the paste goes in.

Is groundnut soup the same as mafe?

No, though they are close relatives. Wikipedia calls maafe very similar to groundnut soup and describes the Senegalese version as a rice-based dish with a creamy peanut paste sauce (Wikipedia). Ghanaian groundnut soup is a soup in the full sense: thin enough to ladle around a ball of fufu or omo tuo.

Can you make groundnut soup with goat, beef or fish?

Yes. BusinessDay notes it is commonly made with chicken, beef, goat meat or smoked fish (BusinessDay). Goat and beef need a longer steam in step 1, until a fork goes in with little resistance, before the vegetables join them. Le Creuset’s version uses no meat at all: vegetable stock cubes in the soup and pan-seared oyster mushrooms on top (Le Creuset).