I love eating peanut butter straight from the jar. I’m not a big PB & J eater, but I do love sticking my finger spoon in the PB jar and scooping up a mouth full of peanut butter. So what does peanut butter have to do with Mafe’? Mafe’ is a west African stew with a peanut butter sauce as the base.
German Mama of Arepas to Zwetschgen, the host of Cook Around the Globe selected West African cuisine for October, another region of the world with a cuisine I am totally unfamiliar with – until now. While surfing several sites I kept coming across recipes called mafé, groundnut stew, and chickennat. All of the the dishes were stewlike, one pot meals that used at least 1 cup of peanut butter in the sauce. Most used a meat such as beef or chicken, and the recipe I selected mentioned a vegetarian version. Since I’ve never really cooked with peanut butter, I decided to go for it.
Mafé or Groundnut Stew Recipe
(Adapted from Mafé at whats4eats) italics show my changes
Serves: 6
Prep and Cook Time: 1.5 to 3 hours (depending on the the cut of meat or whether or not you even use meat)
Ingredients
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 pounds beef stew meat, cubed into bite-size pieces (I used beef tri tip)
1 medium onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced*
1 Tbsp. fresh ginger, minced*
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 – 28 ounce can diced tomatoes (or you could use fresh tomatoes)
2 cups water or stock (I used duck stock because I had some in the freezer)
8 small sweet peppers, sliced into circles
2 small hot peppers, minced (optional)
1 cup natural, unsalted peanut butter
Salt and pepper to taste (I didn’t need to add salt because of the tomato paste and canned tomatoes)
2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
Sweet and Spicy Pepitas (optional)
*substituted with 1 ½ Tbsp. ginger garlic paste. Next time I’ll use 2 Tbsp. paste.
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the beef and sauté until browned on all sides, 5-6 minutes. Remove to a bowl and set aside.
- Add the onion to the pot and sauté 3-4 minutes. Stir in the garlic and ginger and sauté another 1-2 minutes.
- Return the beef to the pot, stir in the tomato paste and cook for about 1 minute. Stir in the chopped tomatoes with juice and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low.
- Add enough water or stock to loosen the dish to a stewlike consistency.
- Add the sweet and hot peppers. Simmer for another 10 minutes.
- Stir in the peanut butter and simmer for another 40 minutes or longer, until the beef is tender. (I had to cook it 2 hours to tenderize the tri tip.) Add water as necessary to keep the dish stewlike.
- Stir in the parsley and adjust seasoning.
- Top each serving with some Sweet and Spicy Pepitas.
Serve over rice.
Kitchen Notes
We really liked this dish! It was hearty and definitely like a stew. Next time, I think I’ll add a few more vegetables like carrots and maybe parsnips. I did add some sweet peppers as well as 2 Big Bomb hot peppers. The same friend that loaned me these beautiful bowls gave me the Big Bomb peppers (the round ones in the picture) the day before I made this. They were perfect in this dish.
Even though I used fresh ground peanuts with no salt or sugar, this dish was sweeter than I thought it would be. The sweetness probably came from the tomato paste. Adding the hot pepper helped to offset the sweetness as well as giving the dish a little bite that I think it needed. Next time I’ll probably make it a little spicier.
The meat – You can use beef, lamb, goat, or chicken for the meat. Next time I’ll use chicken and make chickennat which is a little different.
Vegetables – A variety of vegetables can be added with the water or stock. You can add cabbage, yams, sweet potatoes, parsnip, squash, okra, eggplant, potatoes, peppers, or carrots. I think serving it over a baked sweet potato would be quite delicious.
Vegetarian – Omit the meat and just use a variety of vegetables and water or veggie broth.
Slow cooker – I’m putting this here in hopes that someone will offer advice on how to adapt this recipe for a slow cooker. I think it is a slow cooker dish, but since I don’t have a slow cooker (did I hear someone gasp?), I’m not even going there. If you have some advice on this, please leave a comment.
Suggested Slowcooker adaptation: Perform steps 1-4 as written. Put in crock pot. Do step 5. Cook on high for 1 hour, the do step 6. Simmer on LOW for 4-6 hours (depending on tenderness). Do step 7 at the end! (Thanks for Ann over at Cooking Healthy for Me for this!)
Last but not least – Would I make this again? Absolutely!
This recipe has been linked to the following blog hops. Be sure to check on the links provided to find a great selection of similar recipes.
Bizzy the Explorer Searches for Peanut Butter hosted by Bizzy Bakes, Weekend Potluck, Mix it up Monday, Gluten Free Wednesday, Hearth and Soul, and Sunday Night Soup Night, Full Plate Thursday, Katherine Martinelli’s Beef Hop, Made With Love Mondays
This post was featured on Gluten-Free Wednesday, February 22, 2012 and Sunday Night Soup Night, April 1, 2012.
would love to try this sometime…the addition of peanut butter is interesting
thanks for sharing!
happy saturday!
I love peanuts….
Anything with any form of peanut is heaven, will try this soon…
Looks lovely……..
Interesting recipe with peanut butter. Love the ingredients you have used. I would love to try this one.
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Regards
Spoon and Chopsticks
http://spoon-and-chopsticks.blogspot.com
African cuisine is one of those ones that is totally overlooked and yet full of so much variety and packed with tastes and flavours that are just fantastic! I do so love the stews and meals that use peanut butter, though my partner is allergic to nuts (and this makes me sad/angry!) so, most of the time I have to substitute it for coconut or roasted chickpeas.
Your stew looks beautiful!
I have heard of groundnut stew but have never made it – yours looks absolutely delicious!! I love peanut butter, so I am sure I would love this too. I will have to give it a try!
HAHA, I totally do that with peanut butter too! Sometimes you just need a spoonful of peanut butter. So comforting, rich, delicious!
Hey!
Loving this recipe! I live alone, so I just want to make a small serving. How many servings is this recipe for? 
Whoops! I forgot to add the servings and prep/cook time! Thanks for catching that! This dish easily serves 6, so cutting back on the ingredients should be easy. Also, it looks like a dish that would freeze well. If we have any leftovers after the second meal, we’ll freeze them. I hope you enjoy it! Let me know how it turns out!
oh man this looks good! I also love a Filipino stew with peanut butter called kari-kari. amazing what peanut butter does in a stew right?
Nice – Africa is always a place I want to try more food from. There are a whole treasure-trove of undiscovered cuisines there which I’d just love to try. This looks wonderful – definitely worth a try!
What a great recipe! I really wanted to make something too for this month’s Cook around the Globe, but did not have enough time… sigh! This dish sounds delicious MJ! I don’t have a slow cooker either by the way…
The colours your pictures show are amazing- so beautiful.
Mmm…a whole cup of peanut butter–sounds like my kind of soup!
Interesting recipe. I’m with you – PB or Almond butter right from the jar? You bet! My german shepard like peanut butter as well but I think I give it to him as an excuse to sneak some myself.
Very interesting, MJ!
And we do have one thing in common… I like raw PB, too… I eat it with my spoon (or finger), I can’t resist!
Thanks everyone for your comments! Looks like we have a nutty group here!
BTW – to make this dish even nuttier – I added sweet and spicy toasted pumpkin seeds as a topping to the leftovers. It made a good thing even better!
Oh my gosh you don’t have a slow cooker?!
Love your idea for the Cook Around the Globe. I’ve been noticing all of the different uses of peanut butter too but I’ve been wracking my brain and haunting the Internet to try to think up something to submit for it.
Either way, your Mafe looks gorgeous.
I am going through your ingredients and oh boy… I am salivating, MJ! Especially when I saw the peanut butter. I would probably have more than a serving of rice with this. It looks delicious! Have a great week, MJ!
~ ray ~
First of all, I love your beautiful blue bowls…handmade? I’m not a big peanut butter fan because I didn’t grow up with it and it’s fairly new ingredient to me. But this stew looks SUPER delicious. I defrosted stewed beef for tomorrow and I’m considering to make this – but not quite sure how spicy it will be for my kids and myself. Have to probably remove a lot of pepper, but I’m afraid the taste will not be as great as yours!
Yes the bowl are handmade. I wish they were mine!
The original recipe didn’t call for anything spicy, but you know me – I had to add it. So therefore, you could just leave it out OR add some smoked paprika if you have it. I think smoked paprika or a really good quality paprika would be excellent in this stew. Let me know how you like!
That a very interesting recipe! I’ve never heard of combining meat and peanut butter in a stew. I’m saving this, I’m going to try it!
Oh wow! This sounds lovely. Must try this … assuming I can keep from eating all of my peanut butter. Everything tastes better straight from the jar using our “natural spoons”
Uh, you do have a slow cooker. It’s big, red, heavy, and French.
Oh Bobby – a slowcooker is what you know as a “crockpot”!
This is really interesting, peanut butter in a stew.. Most likely I will lick the whole pot clean
love to try this out
Great choice. I was looking at all those PB recipes and contemplating very hard whether to make one or not. We are no PB fans but I was very curious about these stews. (BTW, the roundup post is finally up, so you can link this recipe.)
This sounds and looks amazing! I’d love for you to share this recipe at Mix it up Monday:
http://flourmewithlove.blogspot.com/2012/02/mix-it-up-monday_12.html
I hope to see you soon
At first I thought, “This recipe is going to be too weird for my family,” but after looking at it I think not. I would have to use a nut butter substitute because my husband can’t have peanuts. And I would probably leave the peppers out, though they sure are pretty. But the other ingredients are all pretty “normal” for my non adventurous husband (and a couple of my kids). Thanks for linking it up at GF Wednesdays!
I have never made a savoury recipe with peanut butter before either – I think you were brave to try this one, and it really does look delicious! The spices sound absolutely lovely. And I only just got a slow cooker this year, so you are not the only one
Great dish, I love it! Apart from peanut dipping sauce, I’ve never used peanut butter in cooking either, but this stew sounds really tasty! Thanks for sharing this with Sunday Night Soup Night, look forward to seeing you again soon!
I have chosen this soup as one of my top 3 soups from Sunday Night Soup Night! I have tweeted it, pinned it and shared it on my Facebook page. It will be featured on Sunday Night Soup Night this coming Sunday. Thanks for linking up and I hope to see you again soon!
Thanks Debbie! That’s awesome!
Hi MJ,
This looks like a delicious Stew, that we would really enjoy. It is rainy and cold here today, our first real taste of fall and this Stew would be great. Enjoy your weekend and thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday.
Come Back Soon!
Miz Helen
There is a really nice West African Restaurant near West Philadelphia called Kilimanjaro. (43rd and Chestnut). Their Mafé is divine….they make it with lamb. They can make it more or less spicy, the staff are very nice, the music and atmosphere will definitely make you feel like your visiting West Africa….you should try it if your looking for a place to eat while visiting the city of brotherly love.
Thanks for the recommendation! It I ever get to Philadelphia, I will definitely look it up! Thanks for stopping by!
What a unique dish, MJ – the peanut butter is really a surprise! I’m intrigued at the idea of making this with lamb and kicking up the spiciness as you said. Very cool and I’m inspired by your choice of staging for the photo… Thanks so much for sharing!