Avoiding unnecessary forays away from home is the order of the day, and I have been relying on food that is already on hand.
It’s up to us who are privileged to have food in the house to stay home, avoid contact and leave the supplies that are available in stores for others who need them.
Last week I made this dish using a combination of several recipes to accommodate what I had available. This is a satisfying plant-based main dish, made somewhat creamy with the use of peanut butter. It’s good served over rice; one recipe I referred to suggested using brown rice, but there was basmati in the cupboard, so basmati it was. We enjoyed the meal, though I make no claim that it is an authentic West African Groundnut Stew.
Groundnut, by the way, is another name for peanut. Although we call them nuts, because of their similarity to tree nuts, peanuts are legumes native to South America and now grown in the India, China, United States, Nigeria, Indonesia and Canada.
Here are some substitutions you could make if you don’t have these exact ingredients available. Cook the onion in olive oil, butter or margarine or even coconut oil instead of vegetable oil. Instead of using a yellow cooking onion, use a red onion or Spanish onion or, if necessary, omit the onion and add a little onion powder or dehydrated onion.
Likewise if you don’t have fresh garlic or ginger, you could substitute garlic powder (0.5 mL/ ⅛ tsp for each clove) and powdered ginger (0.5 mL/ ⅛ tsp for each 15 mL/1 tbsp of grated fresh). For vegetable broth, you can substitute an equal amount of chicken broth, cooking water from vegetables or tap water. Instead of canned diced tomatoes, use canned whole tomatoes, roughly chopped.
To use dried chickpeas (aka garbanzos) in place of canned ones, presoak and cook them first. In order to replace a 540 mL can of chickpeas, plan on 500 mL (2 cups) of cooked ones. When cooked, dried chickpeas will increase to about 3 times their original volume, so for 500 mL/2 cups of cooked chickpeas, you can start with 150 mL (⅔ cup) dried. Rinse in cold water, place in a bowl or bottle, add enough water to cover the beans by several inches and refrigerate overnight. Drain and rinse, place in a heavy saucepan and add cold water to cover them by several inches. Bring to a boil over high heat, and simmer until tender. Timing depends on how old the dried beans were and how tender you like them. It will likely take 60-90 minutes. Drain cooked beans and use as you would canned garbanzos.
To make like easier in the future, you could cook more than you need now and freeze the extras for later.
You could substitute baby spinach, a bit of frozen spinach or chopped Swiss chard or other greens for the baby kale or omit the greens altogether.
If you don’t have natural peanut butter, use regular, and if you don’t have tomato paste, you could substitute an equal amount of tomato purée or tomato sauce and slightly reduce the amount of liquid from the canned tomatoes.
Any hot sauce will do, or none if you prefer.
Be flexible, and eat well.
West African Peanut Stew
- 15 mL (1 tbsp) vegetable oil
- 1 small cooking onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 15 mL (1 tbsp) grated ginger
- 500 mL (2 cups) vegetable broth
- 250 mL (1 cup) canned diced tomatoes, with juice
- 1 can (540 mL/19 oz) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- About 50 g baby kale, chopped
- 90 mL (6 tbsp) natural peanut butter
- 45 mL (3 tbsp) tomato paste
- 5 mL (1 tsp) or to taste hot sauce, like sriracha
- 25 mL (2 tbsp) chopped peanuts, for garnish
- Rice, for serving
In a heavy 2L saucepan, sauté onions in oil until softened, add minced garlic and grated ginger, stir, and cook briefly until aromatic.
Add vegetable broth, tomatoes, chickpeas, kale, peanut butter, tomato paste and hot sauce.
Warm over medium heat, stirring constantly to incorporate peanut butter. Simmer for about 15 minutes over low heat, stirring often. Adjust seasonings to taste.
Serve over rice and garnish with chopped peanuts if desired.
Makes 4 servings
Margaret Prouse, a home economist, can be reached by email at [email protected].
