Groundnuts, Goobers & Gourmet: Peanuts in African Cuisine

In the U.S., we call them peanuts, but these tasty legumes are enjoyed in cuisines around the world. In Africa, peanuts go by many names like groundnuts, gerte, and nguba—the origin of the nickname "goober." In this episode, culinary experts and passionate food lovers reveal how peanuts are a key ingredient that connects diverse regions and plays a role in bringing vibrant flavors to African dishes. Explore how exciting, delicious and interconnected African food culture is through the lens of peanuts. We speak with chef Michael Twitty, Nina Oduro of Dine Diaspora, Catherine Karanja of NPB and chef Grace Odogbili. Listen to the episode to get the full story.

First, we spoke with Michael Twitty. Michael is a writer, culinary historian and educator. He’s the author of The Cooking Gene, which won the 2018 James Beard Foundation Book Award for Book of the Year and the category for writing. Michael gave us an amazing overview of how peanuts made their way to Africa. Listen to the episode to hear this great history!

According to Michael, peanuts can be used in many forms in African cuisine. “I have been to West Africa now eight times. I've been to Senegal, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Togo, Benin, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon. In every single country I’ve been to the groundnut plays a role in the diet. I've seen it ground into like a flour additive. I've seen it pressed for oil. I've seen it fried or roasted in sand. I've seen it boiled. I've seen it made into a paste like peanut butter to be used for sauces with fish or with chicken or with beef. The first dish I had in Africa was maafe. Maafe in Senegal was a beef maafe. And basically, it's beef cooked in peanut sauce. A savory peanut with onions and ginger and garlic and hot peppers and it's really good. But also called muamba made with palm oil and peanuts. There's also one of my favorite things is suya. Suya is Nigeria's answer to barbecue culture. There's roast an animal whole but there's also suya which is making them to kebab form. And what you do is you make a mixture of spices with also ground peanuts, you roll it in that mixture and then you roast the meat. So, there's all these really wonderful dishes.”

Next, we spoke to Nina Oduro, the co-founder of Dine Diaspora, which is an agency that amplifies the influence of African food culture around the world. Nina is from Ghana, so she told us how peanuts are used in traditional recipes like omotuo. “In Ghana, it’s basically a rice ball and a peanut soup. It’s cooked rice. Form a ball with it. And then, with the peanut base soup that is made, pour it all around, and then you eat it together. And that is like a very big meal in Ghana. It's called Omotuo. And really reminds me of some of the celebrations and things that we would have.”

Nina also told us about a dessert in Ghana called nkate cake. “It's more of a candied peanut. It’s peanuts that are roasted and then they are mixed with melted sugar. So basically, you have a candy at the end with all the peanut stuck together…it's really a hard candy. … And years ago, I came upon it. It's also called the same thing here by the Gullah Geechee people who also make it the same way. And they call it peanut cake, which is exactly the translation of in nkate cake and Ghana. So, it was just such a beautiful connection. When I saw that, when I learned about it. I remember seeing a chef make it or have it and I was like, ‘what is that? What do you call that?’ Because I was so shocked by the direct linkage. This was this exact same thing that he had in his culture, and his people had been passing down and I was like, ‘what do you call these like peanut cake?’ He was like ‘that's exactly what we call it.’”

We also spoke with Catherine Karanja, one of NPB’s longest-tenured employees. Catherine is from Kenya and gave us a great overview of what it’s like to live there. She talked a little bit about what it’s like to grow peanuts there.

Catherine told us about her grandparents growing peanuts. She said, “Growing up in Kenya, I consumed peanuts as a favorite snack both at home and in school, however, my grandparents actually grew some groundnuts just for their home consumption with their family. So, my mother and her siblings would harvest peanuts with their bare hands. And then they would spread them to dry under the sun for several days.”

She also told us how Kenyans often eat peanuts, “Kenyans generally consume roasted groundnuts as a snack, so we call peanuts groundnuts in Kenya. Peanuts and peanut butter are gaining popularity in Kenya and are now sold in supermarkets and stores everywhere. It's also very typical to see a street vendor in Kenya, selling the roasted peanuts in either a small sachet, or in a cone shaped newspaper as a popular snack.”

Lastly, we spoke to Chef Grace Odogbili, who owns a catering business in New York City called Dining with Grace. Grace’s business prides itself on creating regional African, Caribbean, American and global fusion cuisine. This means her food is truly unique with how it blends regional flavors.

Grace’s wide breadth of knowledge allowed her to talk about how peanuts are used all over the continent. “I would say that, for the most part, it's used in soups. We see that in West Africa, in Nigeria, and Ghana, where they have soups that they eat with fufu which is like the pounded starch. For example, in Ghana, they have a food named peanut soup, which is so delicious, and they eat it with omotuo, which is rice balls. And, typically, it's made with chicken and can be made with lamb or goat, some fish to flavor the dish. We usually use like a smoked fish. Some people use shrimp or powdered shrimp or shrimp shells. And that really helps to give a very unique flavor and umami to the dish. That's a favorite of many. But we also see it in Central Africa, such as like in Congolese cuisine, they have a dish called pondu, which is it's kind of like a cassava leaf soup that some people eat it with rice. You can also eat it with a kind of starch as like a fufu type pounded starch as well. And that has cassava leaves, smoked fish and some peanut, you can use peanut butter, or peanut paste as well. But I find that they have quite a lot of similarities, especially between West Africa and then Central Africa. And East Africa too.”

Make sure you listen to the full episode to explore how exciting, delicious and interconnected African food culture is through the lens of peanuts.