Recipe: peanut soup with sweet potato
Raghenie: ‘If you think the Netherlands is the ultimate peanut butter country, you’re mistaken. In Suriname, they love it just as much. In Bende Kondre (a Maroon village in Lower Suriname with three hundred inhabitants), fields full of peanut plants stretched as far as my eyes could see. When I asked what they made with them, Huub (the son of the local grocer) broke into a blissful smile and said: “Mainly peanut butter! Real Surinamese peanut butter, with just peanuts and a little Madame Jeanette.”‘
‘And that’s true: when you get a good jar of Surinamese peanut butter in front of you, there’s nothing in it but Surinamese peanuts, a little coconut oil, spices and, yes, Madame Jeanette. This peanut butter is the main ingredient in Surinamese Creole peanut soup.’
Slurping it up with a straw
‘I have friends who would happily slurp down truckloads of peanut soup with a straw, but I’m full after half a bowl, as rich as I find the traditional version. Here’s the recipe for a feather-light version, with the same velvety mouthfeel as the traditional soup, Surinamese peanut butter and local vegetables. Also important: ready in 30 minutes.’
How to make peanut soup with sweet potato
- Heat the oil in a soup pot and gently fry the onion over low heat until lightly browned, 7 to 10 minutes. Add the tomato and fry for 1 more minute. Pour in the vegetable stock and add the allspice berries, bay leaf and half of the sprigs of celery leaves. Bring to a boil and simmer the soup over low heat for at least 30 minutes.
- Stir the peanut butter into the soup until dissolved. Add the sweet potato, kale and Madame Jeanette. This is also the moment to add the plantain, if using. Cook for another 15 minutes, until the sweet potato is tender but still firm. Turn off the heat and remove the allspice berries, bay leaf, celery-leaf sprigs and the whole Madame Jeanette from the soup. Set the Madame Jeanette aside.
- Serve the soup in bowls and garnish with the bean sprouts, celery leaves and, if desired, ketjap sambal. If you have people who like things spicy, grind the cooked Madame Jeanette finely in a mortar and add a pinch to your peanut soup instead of ketjap sambal.
Tip: you can replace kale with palm cabbage (cavolo nero) or Swiss chard. Swiss chard cooks much faster, so only cook it along for a few minutes at the end. But above all: cook with the seasons and see what you can find at the market.
Title: Madame Jeanette
Author: Raghenie Bhawanie
Price: €34,99
Publisher: Nijgh & van Ditmar
In Madame Jeanette, Raghenie serves more than one hundred dishes, most of them putting vegetables centre stage. Think bami, pom, Surinamese brown beans with rice, chutney, pickles and mango pie. She also explains in this cookbook that food with a kick doesn’t always have to be spicy, and that Surinamese food certainly doesn’t have to be heavy, difficult or time-consuming.
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