Burkinabé mafé / peanut stew — meat (typically lamb or beef) simmered with peanut paste, sweet potato, vegetables, tomato, and onion. The name 'tigadeguena' comes from Bambara. Served over rice or tô.
Tigadeguena (tigadèguèna) is the Malian-region name for the great West African groundnut stew (mafé) — meat slow-cooked in a thick, velvety peanut sauce. The name is Bambara (Bamanankan): tiga 'peanut', dege 'paste', na 'sauce' — literally 'peanut-paste sauce'. The dish is held to have originated among the Mandinka and Bambara of Mali and spread across West Africa (it became Virginia peanut soup in North America via the slave trade). It is called tigadeguena in Burkina Faso because Bambara/Dyula is a widely-spoken trade language there, not because the word is Mooré. Across the Sahel the peanut is the everyday source of richness, and this is its definitive dish; the Burkinabé version favors lamb.
Tigadeguena — Burkinabé mafé with the local emphasis on lamb. Rich peanut sauce, soft sweet potato, tender lamb. With tô on the side, this is the Sahelian Burkinabé family meal.
Same as other West African mafé — long simmer mellows peanut.
Variations
With beef. With chicken. Vegetarian.
On the Palate
Where Tigadeguena sits in the Burkinabé flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
10 steps · 30 min active + 1 hour waiting
- 19 min
Cube 700 g lamb (or beef); brown in 3 tbsp oil 8 min.
- 27 min
Add 2 onions + 4 garlic + 1 tbsp ginger; cook 6 min.
- 36 min
Add 3 tomatoes + 2 tbsp paste + 1-2 scotch bonnets; cook 5 min.
- 43 min
Mix 250 g peanut butter with 200 ml warm water; add.
Watch outLoosen the peanut butter with warm water into a smooth slurry before it goes in — dumped in straight it seizes into greasy lumps that won't disperse.
- 52 min
Add 1 L stock + 2 bouillon cubes + 1 tsp salt + 1 tsp thyme.
- 632 min
Simmer 30 min.
Watch outLet it simmer gently and settle — a low bubble mellows the raw peanut edge and pulls the fat up into a glossy layer; boil it hard and it can split or scorch.
- 75 min
Add 400 g cubed sweet potato + 200 g carrot + 200 g cabbage.
- 826 min
Simmer 25 min until vegetables tender and lamb fork-tender.
- 92 min
Stir in cilantro + lime juice.
- 103 min
Serve over rice or tô.
