The peanut stew (sometimes called sauce d'arachide in Francophone areas) is the alternative to palm-nut nyembwe across Central Africa. Each country has its own version.
Spoon up Gabonese peanut stew — meat in a thick golden-brown peanut sauce, sweet potato cubes soft within, palm-oil sheen on top. Bite: peanut's roasted-nutty richness leads, palm oil's earth underneath, tomato's gentle acidity balancing, piri-piri tingling. With baton de manioc, this is central Gabonese family Sunday.
Whisking peanut paste with hot water gradually prevents lumps and seizing. Browning meat before adding sauce builds Maillard depth.
Variations
With chicken. With lamb. With added cassava leaves. With added okra. Vegetarian with mushrooms. Sauce d'arachide (Francophone West African name).
On the Palate
Where Gabonese Peanut Stew sits in the Gabonese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
8 steps · 35 min active + 55 min waiting
- 16 min
Cut 1 kg beef shoulder (or chicken) into 4-cm cubes. Season with salt, pepper.
- 214 min
Heat 3 tbsp red palm oil in heavy pot. Brown meat in batches; remove.
Watch outGet a real brown crust on the meat before you move it — that seared color is where the stew's depth comes from.
- 311 min
Sauté 2 sliced onions 5 min. Add 4 minced garlic cloves, 2 minced piri-piri, 2 tbsp tomato paste; cook 4 min.
- 43 min
Whisk 200 g smooth peanut paste with 500 ml hot water until smooth; add to pot.
Watch outWhisk the peanut paste into the hot water bit by bit till it's completely smooth — any lumps now stay lumpy in the pot.
- 562 min
Return meat. Add 200 ml additional water. Cover; simmer 60 min.
Watch outKeep it at a lazy simmer and stir now and then; a hard boil makes the peanut oil split and turn greasy.
- 626 min
Add 300 g cubed sweet potato or cassava in last 25 min.
- 71 min
Taste; adjust salt and chili. Stir in 1 tbsp chopped cilantro.
- 81 min
Serve hot over baton de manioc, rice, or boiled cassava.
