Ingredients

1 cup of peanuts, (I used roasted and salted)
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
½ cup minced onion
1 cup diced tomato, small dice
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon coriander
½ teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon Kosher salt or ¼ teaspoon fine salt
Boiling water
Garnish – save out a bit of peanut powder and chopped tomatoes if you like

Directions

First, you’ll need to grind the peanuts. I used a food processor on high speed to do this job. You want to grind the peanuts as fine as possible without letting them turn into peanut paste. I was watching a video where the woman used a coffee grinder to turn out perfectly powdery peanuts, but that definitely did NOT work for me. So, stick with a food processor or perhaps a blender.

Choose a heavy bottom 3-4 quart saucepan so that the nuts won’t burn. Add the ground peanuts to a dry pan and stir and toast over medium low heat for about 5 minutes, until you can smell the aroma of peanuts. (I find a wooden spoon is the best utensil for stirring the pot.) Add the garlic and onions and stir for a few minutes to soften them. Next add the chopped tomatoes, stirring and mashing well for the next 5 minutes or so, until the tomatoes have broken down and the peanuts have come together into a kind of paste.

Now add the spices and let them bloom in the peanut paste for a minute, stirring continuously. Starting with 1 cup of the boiling water, stir it very carefully into the peanut paste and watch for spattering – maybe stand back a bit to avoid being splashed! Stir well over low heat. It should take about 5 minutes to thicken up. Stir occasionally while you are waiting. You will eventually see some of the oil rise to the bubbling surface. Once it starts thickening up, add another half cup of boiling water. Keep stirring! Once again, it will thicken up and you will see oil rise to the surface again.

Total cooking time for the sauce should be about 30 minutes. Don’t skimp on the time because you want the flavors to meld together, and you want the ground peanuts to soften properly. The more you cook the paste, the thicker it will become. Just keep adding bits of water until you have the desired sauce consistency. Taste and adjust salt to your taste. Peanuts are salty and they will vary. I started out with a modest ½ teaspoon Kosher salt, and found that I wanted to add a bit more.

The sauce can be made ahead of time, just note when reheating that you will need to thin it out with a bit of water. Serve over vegetables, any kind of protein, or mashed plantains. You could also turn it into a stew by continuing to add more vegetables, such as diced sweet potato, carrots, green bell peppers, or cabbage.

Country:
Uganda


Notes and Instructions

Recipe and photo credit: Linda McElroy