Recipes from Uganda: Groundnut Sauce

Today I would like to share another recipe from Extending the Table: Recipes and stories from Argentina to Zambia in the spirit of More-with-Less by Joetta Handrich Schlabach.

The author describes Groundnut Sauce like this:

Groundnut (peanut) Sauce and matooks (plantains steamed in banana leaves) are the "mashed potatoes and gravy" of southern Uganda. Ugandans also enjoy boiled sweet potatoes or rice with this sauce, which is they make by grinding roasted peanuts in a larger mortar and pestle.

If you have never seen a mortar and pestle, here is a picture of a kid using a mortar and pestle from Cooking with a Pinch of Salt. A mortar and pestle are used for grinding stuff up into a powder.

And if you watch this video, you can watch a lady use a mortar and pestle as she makes dinner!

Step 07a: Enough Food from Compassion International on Vimeo.

If you would like to make your own Groundnut Sauce, here is the recipe, per the book Extending the Table:

Roast in a saucepan 1 minute:
1 lb. raw peanuts (500 g)
Pound peanuts with mortar and pestle, grind in blender, or put through meat grinder several times to make coarse peanut powder.
Fry in 2 T. oil (30 ml):
3-4 onions, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 T. curry powder (15 ml)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 t. ginger root, grated (5 ml) (optional)
Add peanut powder.
Cook 2-3 minutes. Add slowly to form sauce:
3 c. water or milk (750 ml)
Cook 15-20 minutes.
Add:
1 t. salt (5 ml)
Serve over rice.

About Hannah Hinojosa...Hannah is a long time Compassion sponsor (she was Sherinah's sponsor) and writes about her sponsorship journey at Because of Shamim. In addition to being a wife and mother, she is a part-time math professor and loves to read.