Recipe-1 › Curries of the world › Groundnut soup
Groundnut soup (Nkatenkwan)
Ghana’s peanut stew: chicken or goat simmered with tomatoes, onions and hot pepper, thickened with peanut butter.
Too hot for you? Use half the chilli (powder, paste or fresh chillies) and leave out the green chillies.
New here? How this page works
Recipe-1 is one simple curry recipe in nine steps: fry onions and green chillies, add your vegetables or meat, add chilli powder and turmeric, then water and salt, and boil. With small changes the same nine steps make curries from all over the world.
This page takes those nine steps and shows what to change to make Groundnut soup. You don’t need to read anything else first: every base step is written out below. The changes are worked out on paper from what is typical for this dish; not yet kitchen-tested. Cooked it? Tell others how it went.
Green: the base recipe step (crossed out = do not use it for this dish)Red: what to do instead for Groundnut soup
See the full base recipe (with timers and tips) · See all curries on the world map
You’ll need
The amounts change with the number of people; cooking times stay about the same (use a bigger pot for more). Taste as you go: you can always add more chilli or salt, but you cannot take it out.
Main ingredient: 1 kg Chicken or goat pieces.
From the base recipe
- 2 Onions
Green chilliesnot used- 1 tbsp Cooking oil
- ½ tsp Red chilli powder
Turmericnot used- 1 tsp · 1 l Salt and water
Ginger garlic pastenot usedCloves, cardamom and cinnamonnot usedGaram masala (optional)not used
Add for Groundnut soup
- 200 g Peanut butter (unsweetened)
- 3 Tomatoes
- 1 Scotch bonnet pepper
- 3 cm Ginger
Leave out
- Green chillies
- Turmeric
- Whole spices
The nine steps, with the changes
Where a step has a red line, do the red line and not the crossed-out green base step. Steps with only green are done just as in the base recipe.
Base step: do not use
Cut onions and chillies.Groundnut soup: do thisChop the onions; use scotch bonnet instead of green chillies.
Base step: do not use
Fry in some oil for around 4 minutes on medium-high heat.Groundnut soup: do thisFry the onions with ginger (or boil them with the meat, as many cooks do).
Base step: do not use
Cut the vegetable(s) of your choice.Groundnut soup: do thisUse the meat.
Base step: do not use
Add them and fry for around 4 minutes on medium-high heat.Groundnut soup: do thisAdd the meat and tomatoes and steam them together for 10 minutes.
Base step: do not use
Add red chilli powder and turmeric.Groundnut soup: do thisAdd a little chilli powder instead of turmeric.
Keep frying until just before they start browning.
Base step: do not use
Add some water.Groundnut soup: do thisAdd water, and the peanut butter loosened with some of the hot liquid.
Add salt.
Base step: do not use
Boil until the gravy is as thick as you like.Groundnut soup: do thisSimmer 40 minutes, skimming off the oil, until the soup is thick.
Serve: With fufu, rice balls (omo tuo) or rice.
For meat and seafood, make sure it is cooked through: chicken until no pink remains inside; mutton, goat and beef need long, slow cooking.
Food marks, as on packaged food in India: vegetarian · non-vegetarian (meat, fish or egg). Dishes with both marks can be made either way.
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