?A field of lettuce at dusk in Griesheim, Germany. This photo was taken in August of 2007.

Senegalese Mafé/Peanut Butter Soup

By Poog • 16:30 on Thursday, February 06, 2003 • 4 responses

My friend Joe re-introduced me to this dish by making a “peanut butter soup” for us one night at his place. When I tasted it, I knew right away I’d had it before…it’s the same stuff my Senegalese dorm-mate Badou Seck used to make and call “mafé”. It’s easy, it’s cheap, and it tastes fabulous.

Ingredients A

  • 1 onion, chopped finely
  • 3 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1 t cayenne
  • 2 T peanut oil

Ingredients B

  • 2 T curry powder (if it’s heavy on the cumin, it’s better.)
  • 3 larger fresh tomatoes (chopped)
  • 1 large can of drained diced canned tomatoes
  • 3 C chicken stock

Ingredients C

  • 2/3 C creamy peanut butter
  • 1.5 lb boneless/skinless chicken, cut into bite-size chunks

Toppings

  • sour cream or plain yoghurt
  • chopped cilantro
  • lime wedge
  1. Put Ingredients A into a pot. Sautee until translucent.
  2. Add Ingredients B. Simmer 15 minutes.
  3. Add ingredients C. Simmer until chicken is done.
  4. Serve over rice, topped with sour cream, lime wedge, and chopped cilantro.

Serves at least four, possibly six, leftovers are good too. Ambrosia.

Thanks to the incomparable Joseph Scott and Badou Seck.

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4 responses

1

Ineke

Comment posted at 19:50 on Saturday, November 06, 2004

So, I was initially sceptical—but, hey, this is surprisingly tasty. It helps if I don’t think of it as a soup, though, because peanut butter is a breakfast spread and soup is soup, and never the twain shall meet (for the sake of my mental health: please). We used crunchy peanut butter and beans instead of chicken, but it still worked a treat. And it cost about $3.00—why don’t more students know about this recipe?

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2

Joe Scott

Comment posted at 20:27 on Monday, March 06, 2006

Too funny.  I couldn’t find my cookbook yesterday, so I had to go to the internets to find a recipe for “Peanut Butter Soup”.  And what’s the fourth link to come up in Google?

Why, this very page. 

It was vewy yummy indeed.

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3

Khadijah hameed

Comment posted at 15:09 on Thursday, May 18, 2006

Hello i’m from oxford alabama and i have many african friend i have try to learn how to cook mafe for a looking time this is the frist page i food with the right Ingredients i would like to know the name of the greas africans cook in because i moved and i’m not close to my friends anymore so now i don’t know the type of grease to buy to cook with it is a red red grease.

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4

CES

Comment posted at 12:51 on Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Dende oil or red palm oil are used in Africa and Brazil. This recipe looks fabulous, I will try it soon.

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