Crying Onions

If you’ve seen the latest episode of Glee, you’ll understand why I spent the entire day after it aired belting out renditions of Somebody to Love by Queen. By evening, even I was willing to admit that I needed something else interesting and complex to distract me from the broken record in my head. As usual, I turned to the kitchen for help, and that’s when I thought about West African peanut soup.

I’d heard about this soup a while ago, but never bothered to look up a recipe. Making a peanut soup sounded like something that would take hours and lots of concentration, and I thought it would be the perfect distraction. For better or worse, it actually turned out to be quite simple, and I ended up chopping and stirring to the beat of the
music. But let me tell you, that music made one hell of a tasty soup.

This soup is beautiful, its earthy orange tones flecked with red and green bell pepper. And even though making it didn’t distract me from my music, eating it certainly did. It has a remarkably complex flavor that’s a mix of familiar and exotic. The ingredient combination might sound a bit weird, and in fact, it is. But it works. It really really works. And if you make it and disagree, I’ll be happy to take any of your leftovers.

Adapted from Epicurious
Serves 6-8 as a meal.
Total cost: $13 ($2.17 per person). Price breakdown is approximate.

What you need:

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil [$0.10]
• 2 medium onions, chopped [$0.70]
• 2 bell peppers (1 red, 1 green), chopped [$2]
• 1 medium clove garlic, chopped [$0.10]
• 1 28 oz can diced tomatoes, drained and juice reserved [$1]
• 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and chopped into small pieces [$1]
• 11 c chicken stock (low sodium is fine) Note: You could probably substitute vegetable broth for a vegetarian meal [$6]
• 1 tsp hot pepper flakes (less if you like it less spicy) [$0.10]
• Freshly ground pepper (to taste)
• 1.5 c brown rice (uncooked) [$1]
• 3/4 c creamy peanut butter [$1]

What to do:

1. In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and pepper and saute for 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook another 5 minutes.
2. Stir in drained tomatoes, and cook until they break down (about 5 minutes).
3. Increase the heat to medium-high. Add in the sweet potato, chicken stock, reserved tomato juice, hot pepper flakes, and black pepper. Bring to a boil, covered.
4. Reduce heat to low. Add in the brown rice and simmer for 50 minutes, until rice is cooked.
5. Stir in peanut butter and stir to dissolve. Simmer another 5-10 minutes and serve.

Posted October 5th, 2009 at 3:00 pm. Categories: main courses, soups. Leave a comment or trackback from your own site.