Maafe, a vegetarian (vegan) version

 

  This is a lovely stew that I made for supper on this Meatless Monday. I recently (a year and a half ago ? lol) picked up a lovely cookbook called "Food From Across Africa" written by 3 young African chefs that started a bi-monthly supper club called The Groundnut in London, to bring awareness of the magic of African culinary delights to the world. I play with recipes always... making them vegetarian or substituting what ingredients I have on hand that I think will fit.  I have been making more and more Asian, Indian, Egyptian and African dishes since we started eating more vegetarian meals. At least every other day I try to make a meatless meal, for reasons both health and carbon footprint oriented. Not to mention pandemic budgetary reasons.  This stew is the 3rd African dish I have made and we were delighted with it.  The more traditional Maafe recipes include meat, either chicken or lamb, and sometime I will try that as well. 

  So.  The protein component in this stew would be the peanuts and chickpeas.  When you eat vegetarian, you have to be mindful of nutrition. Mac and cheese just don't get it.  lol So the protein and fiber content of chickpeas make for a powerhouse of nutrition for very little money.  I teamed this stew up with some brown rice and a couple of slices of some fresh made honey oat multigrain bread.  It was a delicious meal, very satisfying and simple to make. The hardest part was peeling the butternut squash, lol.  Let's get started:

  West African Groundnut Stew (Maafe)

ingredients

2 T oil (sesame is what I used, olive oil or vegetable oil works too)

1 med. onion, diced

4 cloves garlic minced

1 Scotch Bonnet or Jalapeno pepper (optional)

2 inches scrubbed grated ginger

1 Tbsp Cumin

2 tsp Coriander

2 tsp Paprika

2 Tbsp tomato paste

4-6 cups vegetable broth (or chicken broth if you don't care)

1 15 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 small butternut squash, peeled and cubed

1 cup natural peanut butter

kale or spinach

Salt and Pepper to taste

 Crushed peanuts [and cilantro] to garnish

  Heat the oil in a pot (** I used my instapot. I cooked the ingredients initially on the brown/sear menu button, then changed it to soup/stew when I was adding the broth and stuff **) Cook the onions, garlic and ginger (and peppers if you use them--I did not) in the oil. Cook until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add the cumin,coriander,paprika to the mix and cook about 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add the tomato paste, vegetable broth, chickpeas,squash and peanut butter to the pan and mix well. Stir it up good to make sure the peanut butter is melted and incorporated. Bring this to a boil and then turn down heat and simmer about 25 minutes, until the butternut squash is tender. At the very end, before dishing it up, add spinach or kale and a handful of peanuts. Salt and Pepper totaste.  Let the spinach wilt and it's ready to serve. I made brown rice and put about 1/3 of a bowl of rice, mooshed over to the side and filled the bowl with the stew, as you can see by the picture. I didn't have any cilatro to garnish it with, so I just sprinkled some peanuts over the top.  

  If you try it, give me a shout and let me know !!