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dine in WITH Mary Welp Nuts From the Underground By Mary Welp Illustrations by Carrie Neumayer Root vegetables and peanut butter partner in this earthy but sweet West African soup. T here's always that moment when a guest asks for a recipe and you say to yourself, "Do I write it down? Or lend the cookbook?" Te frst option is a lot of bother, particularly with complicated instructions. But the second option can burn you, in that you may never again see your beloved book. Te Internet has for the most part quelled the problem. To anyone asking for a recipe, you can say, "I'll send you the link tomorrow." Sometimes you say this knowing full well that the exact recipe is not online, as it came from a cookbook printed long before the Internet existed and was in circulation only for the briefest of times. A case in point: Te Africa News Cookbook, a collection from the entire continent published by Penguin in 1985. Many of my favorite recipes are taken from or adapted from this book — a beat-up old paperback with a plastic spiral spine. Te book was given to me by a grad-school friend who knew how crazy I was for Ethiopian food. Te recipes inside are so simply laid out (no photos, only the occasional illustration) that I felt immediately invited to branch out into the cuisine of other countries on ofer. Soon I was making signature dishes from Kenya, Morocco, Algeria, Nigeria, Tanzania, Mozambique, etc. Tere's a shrimp and plantains dish from Cape Verde that proves Cubans and Peruvians have not yet won the Battle of the Best Platanos! But one dish renowned to be of West African origin is, in fact, served in some form in nearly every African country, and that dish is groundnut stew. As the introduction to this section of the book puts it, "Stew made from groundnuts, or what folks in the U.S. call peanuts, is among those foods that make guests exclaim in delight." And it's true. Every time I hear one of those stories about how citizens of other nations do 72 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 2.14 not comprehend the American penchant for peanut butter, my immediate inclination is to want to ship sealed vats of groundnut stew overseas with an injunction: "But try this!" Put another way, peanut butter is to groundnut stew as cornmeal mush is to polenta. Check it out sometime: Te very same friends who insist that they never ever, under any circumstances, would eat mush (and that the very thought of it makes them want to heave) will order a polenta dish from an Italian menu — and scarf it right down. Anyway, most groundnut stew recipes begin with chicken as their key ingredient. In fact, the one from Uganda in Africa News is called Chickennat. Sometimes I make it exactly as it's composed in the book; other times, I'll do a blend of the Ugandan and the Senegalese. Te latter has more vegetables in it, vegetables especially suited to wintertime: sweet potatoes, carrots, turnips, cabbage, okra. But then a few years ago, my husband showed me a recipe he found at the website Stumbleupon.com, and it was for a groundnut soup that was vegetarian. As is his wont, he thought I might want to make it for myself for my birthday — at the height of summer. I fooled around with it, combining the best of both sources. Te bottom line is that this soup is good any time of year. And it's pretty convenient to be able to have a vegetarian version to serve to friends who don't eat anything with a face or feet. If you prefer some hint of meatiness, you can use chicken stock in place of the vegetable stock. Te pistachio element seems to borrow heavily from the more Middle Eastern part of the globe. If you roast the carrots and sweet potatoes before using them in the recipe, it will add a dimension of favor. West African Peanut and Pistachio Soup 2 cups chopped onions 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 cloves garlic, minced ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 serrano chile, seeded and minced 1 teaspoon grated peeled fresh gingerroot 1 cup peeled and chopped carrots 2 cups peeled and chopped sweet potatoes 4 cups vegetable stock 2 cups canned whole peeled tomatoes 1 cup chunky peanut butter 2 teaspoons sugar (optional) Salt to taste 1 cup chopped scallions Chopped peanuts Chopped pistachios Hot sauce (for drizzling or dousing) Sauté the onions in the oil until they are translucent. Stir in the garlic, cayenne, minced chile and fresh ginger. Add the carrots, and sauté two more minutes. Mix in the sweet potatoes and stock, bring the soup to a boil, and then simmer for about 15 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. In a blender or food processor, purée the vegetables with the cooking liquid and the tomatoes. Return the purée to the soup pot. Stir in the peanut butter until fully blended. Taste the soup. The sweetness will depend upon the sweetness of the carrots and sweet potatoes. If it's not sweet naturally, add just a little sugar to enhance the other favors, and add salt to taste. Reheat the soup slowly and gently to prevent scorching. Add more water, stock or tomato juice for a thinner soup. Serve topped with plenty of chopped scallions, chopped peanuts and chopped pistachios and hot sauce to taste. Serves four to six.