Groundnut Soup Sierra Leone

Easy·25 min active + 50 min resting

Sierra Leonean peanut soup — ground peanuts simmered with chicken, beef, or fish in a tomato-onion broth with palm oil and seasonings into a thick, creamy stew. Served over white rice. One of Sierra Leone's most-popular dishes.

Groundnut soup is among Sierra Leone's most popular dishes — meat or fish slow-simmered in a thick peanut sauce — part of the West African groundnut-stew tradition. Rich and nutty, it's an everyday dish served over rice.

Spoon up groundnut soup — deep golden-brown creamy stew, chunks of tender meat throughout, tomato-onion sauce showing through, palm-oil sheen. Bite: peanut richness dominates (warm, deep, slightly sweet), the tomato adds brightness, the meat is fork-tender, the scotch bonnet's heat builds, the cilantro adds fresh top notes. With white rice, this is the Sierra Leonean comfort meal.

Mixing peanut butter with warm water first prevents lumps. Long simmering mellows the peanut's raw notes and integrates flavors. The Sierra Leonean version is slightly less spiced than Nigerian variations.

Variations

Groundnut soup with fish (lighter). With smoked meat (richer). Vegetarian version with mushrooms. With sweet potato added (variation).

On the Palate

Where Groundnut Soup Sierra Leone sits in the Sierra Leonean flavor cloud

Cook to learn

Loosen the peanut butter with warm water into a smooth slurry before it hits the pot, then simmer long and slow — the raw, chalky peanut edge only cooks out over 45 minutes, and adding the paste straight from the jar leaves you with grainy lumps.

Techniques

Simmering

Ingredients

Serves 6

3 + 2 tbsp pasteTomato

How it's made

9 steps · 25 min active + 50 min waiting

1
5 min
Cube 600 g chicken (or beef) into 4-cm pieces; season with salt and pepper.
2
9 min
Brown the meat in 3 tbsp palm oil 8 min.
3
7 min
Add 2 chopped onions + 4 minced garlic + 1 tbsp grated ginger; cook 6 min.
4
6 min
Add 3 chopped tomatoes + 2 tbsp tomato paste + 1-2 chopped scotch bonnets; cook 5 min.
5
3 min
Mix 250 g smooth peanut butter with 200 ml warm water; add to pot.
Watch out
Whisk the peanut butter and warm water into a smooth slurry before it goes in.
6
2 min
Add 800 ml chicken stock + 2 bouillon cubes + 1 tsp salt.
7
47 min
Simmer covered 45 min, stirring occasionally, until meat is tender and sauce creamy.
Watch out
It's ready when the meat is fork-tender and the sauce has turned thick and creamy.
8
2 min
Add 1 tsp dried thyme + 2 tbsp chopped cilantro + 1 tbsp lime juice.
9
3 min
Serve hot over white rice.