Enter your email & we’ll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from us every week! By submitting this form, you consent to receive emails from Hurry the Food Up. The best argument we can give you is that this recipe has become one of our absolute favourites, since we first published it back in 2014. When we first came up with this recipe, our chef Hauke gave up friends, free-time, and perhaps even a little bit of sanity for a week – to create (drumroll please)… a vegan soup with peanut butter! And put simply, it’s absolutely AMAZING. The combination of peanut, ginger, garlic and tomato paste is just fantastic, and needs to be tried to be believed. Give this one a go and you’ll have a vegan soup recipe for life.
Why is it named ‘African’ peanut soup?
Well, this recipe is loosely based on a peanut soup recipe from West Africa, sometimes called maafe, groundnut soup, or West African peanut soup. There are variations to be found throughout West Africa from Senegal to Mali to Nigeria, and all have their own twist. Regardless of those differences, it’s an important cultural staple from this region of Africa. Our recipe is not, strictly speaking, the same as traditional groundnut soup, particularly those that include a form of meat. BUT it does combine those same flavors of tomatoes and peanut butter. And both are served on a bed of rice, giving the recipe a similar feel. I have to say thank you to the people in West Africa that came up with the combination of flavors this african peanut soup (or groundnut soup) recipe so delicious.
Vitamin Central
In order to make our blog, as well as being delicious, recipes have to be both fast and healthy. And this african peanut soup recipe is no slouch – it takes twenty five minutes from start to finish, and is most certainly good for body and mind. The ‘A’ in vitamin A might as well stand for ‘awesome’. Not only does Vitamin A help you see important things in the dark (like peanut soup), it’s also used to stimulate white blood cell growth, to remodel bone and regulate cell growth and division. One serving contains 96% of your GDA of Vitamin A and packs a whole heck of a lot of protein in too, making this a high protein soup recipe (which can be tough to find – unless you’ve seen our top 50 vegetarian protein soups!).
How to make soup, specifically peanut soup
Does it matter what type of peanut butter I use?
The choice between crunchy or smooth peanut butter is up to you, but you should stick to a natural peanut butter (i.e. the ones without added ingredients) for the best results.
How should this soup be stored?
It should keep in the fridge for 3 to 4 days, but it will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months. Just pop it in a tupperware and thaw it out on your next cold winter day. Don’t freeze the soup with rice though, make a fresh batch when you defrost it.
Can I add different veggies?
For sure! We like our soup with zucchini (or courgette), but traditional recipes tend to include collard greens. The recipe is simple enough that swapping out some veggies is no biggie (btw if this kind of flexibility is what you need, try these vegetarian recipes for beginners too!) Honestly, this is a pretty flexible recipe that you can tweak to fit your tastes. If you’re looking for more easy vegan soups after you fall in love with this african peanut soup, check out our creamy butternut squash soup, our flavour packed corn soup, or our cozy lentil soup.
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