Table Trotter

Dinner night · Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone Groundnut Stew with Beef

Freetown-style peanut stew with tender beef, tomato, onion and a whole chile, simmered until the oil rises and spooned over rice: a slow-ish weeknight pot.

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On our list — not yet cooked
Sierra Leone Groundnut Stew with Beef: Freetown-style peanut stew with tender beef, tomato, onion and a whole chile, simmered until the oil rises and spooned over rice: a slow-ish weeknight pot
AI-generated illustration
Prep
20 min
Cook
70 min
Total
90 min
Serves
2 adults + 1 child, with lunch left over
Budget
$18–$27

Groundnut stew is Sierra Leone's peanut stew: meat browned with onion, simmered with tomato and a whole hot pepper, then thickened with ground peanuts until the sauce turns the color of clay and a shine of peanut oil floats to the top. Chicken is the most common protein, but beef is a traditional choice too, and that is the version here, with stew beef cut small so it turns tender in about an hour. The flavor is deep and nutty, savory from bouillon and onion, tangy from tomato, and as hot as the cook decides. Like nearly everything in Sierra Leone it is served over rice, and plenty of it.

Why it's on our list

Sierra Leoneans say a meal without rice is not a meal, and I want to understand what sits on top of all that rice. Groundnut stew is the dish described again and again as the one everybody loves, and it is friendlier to a first attempt than cassava leaves, the national dish, which needs an African market and a lot of pounding. The technique I want to learn is the patient simmer of a peanut sauce: when to add the peanuts, how to keep them from catching, and how to read the moment the oil separates, which West African cooks use as the doneness signal. It is feasible on a night with ninety minutes, because the beef mostly cooks itself while the rice steams, and the single whole chile makes a mild pot with a hot option on the side.

Field notes · Origin & culture

Sierra Leone's cuisine is shaped by its sixteen or so ethnic groups and by the Krio culture of Freetown, founded in the late eighteenth century by freed and formerly enslaved people from Britain, Nova Scotia, Jamaica and later recaptured Africans, whose English-based Krio language is now the country's lingua franca. Wikipedia names rice as "the most commonly eaten food in Sierra Leone," calls cassava leaves the national dish, and describes groundnut stew as a dish that "often has chicken and vegetables included" and is served as a substantial family meal. Peanut stews appear across West Africa, from Senegal's mafé to Ghana's nkatenkwan; the Sierra Leonean version is distinguished mostly by being eaten with rice rather than fufu and by a fondness for hot pepper. Recipes vary by household in tomato, protein and heat, so treat this as one family-style version.

Noteworthy ingredients

  • Natural peanut butter: Stands in for freshly ground roasted peanuts. Buy the unsweetened kind with just peanuts and salt.
  • Beef chuck: Cut into 1-inch pieces so it is tender in about an hour. Pre-cut "stew beef" works; trim big pieces smaller.
  • A whole Scotch bonnet or habanero: Floated whole, it perfumes the stew gently; mashed in, it is fiery. Sierra Leonean cooks would use more than one.
  • Bouillon cubes: Maggi is the brand of choice across West Africa; any beef or chicken cube does the job. Hold back on added salt until the end.
  • Smoked fish or dried shrimp (optional): Many Sierra Leonean stews add smoked fish for depth. A tablespoon of dried shrimp, or a few drops of fish sauce, gets you most of the way.

Prep — 20 min

  1. Pat the beef dry and season with 1 teaspoon salt and the black pepper.
  2. Dice the onions. Mince the garlic and grate the ginger. Chop the tomatoes (or drain the can).
  3. Dissolve the bouillon cubes in 3 cups hot water. Whisk the peanut butter into 1 cup of it until smooth.
  4. About 25 minutes before the stew is done, start the rice: rinse 1 1/2 cups rice and cook with 2 1/4 cups water and a pinch of salt by the package timing.

Cook — 70 min

  1. Heat the oil in the Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown the beef in two batches, 3–4 minutes per batch, without crowding; move each batch to a plate.
  2. Lower the heat to medium and add the onions with a pinch of salt. Cook 6–7 minutes until soft and golden. Add the garlic, ginger and tomato paste; stir 1 minute.
  3. Add the tomatoes and cook 6 minutes, until they break down and the mixture looks like a thick sauce.
  4. Return the beef and its juices. Add the remaining 2 cups of bouillon water, the whole chile and the dried shrimp or fish sauce if using. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook 35 minutes, until the beef is beginning to turn tender.
  5. Stir in the peanut butter mixture. Simmer partially covered over medium-low heat 25–30 minutes more, stirring every 6–8 minutes and scraping the bottom, because the sauce will try to stick. It is done when the beef yields to a spoon, the sauce coats the back of a spoon, and a thin layer of reddish peanut oil has pooled on top. Add a splash of water if it thickens faster than the beef cooks.
  6. Remove the whole chile to a saucer. Season with salt and a squeeze of lime. Taste; it should be rich and savory with a tomato edge, not sweet.

Serving

Pile white rice on each plate and ladle the groundnut stew over the top, with cilantro or parsley scattered on if you like. The pot as written is only gently warm; adults can mash some of the softened chile into their portions while my son's plate stays mild, and a lime wedge brightens everything. Groundnut stew is better the next day, keeps three days refrigerated, and reheats slowly with a few tablespoons of water; leftovers are also good over boiled sweet potato.

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