If you have been visiting my blog here or a follower on Instagram, you will know by now that Ghanaians love their soups. A good meal by Ghanaian standards will usually be a hearty soup with some carbohydrate usually fufu. Interestingly for me, I have never been able to eat fufu after the 1983 famine in Ghana. I’ll save the details of this story for another post. But for me, my go to carbohydrate for a hearty soup is rice balls, see here for recipe.
Today I share with you this hearty, earthy, nutty and fragrant groundnut soup. The main ingredient which the soup takes it name from is groundnut paste. Please it is not the peanut butter paste used as spreads. The spreads are too sugary and don’t give a good authentic and traditional taste required for this soup. I recommend you make your own groundnut paste which is super easy to make. Alternatively, you can get a ready made one from a good Asian or African shop. To make your own, roast red skin peanuts, as described in the post here. Use a mill to grind the nuts into a smooth paste and that’s all you need to do for a good quality ground nut paste. Traditionally, Ghanaians prefer using tougher chicken meat for soups hen we go for broiler chicken. They are tastier and are able to withstand the long simmering process of the soup making without the meat melting or going too soft. You can however use normal chicken but you will need to reduce the cooking time or remove the chicken from the soup during the simmering process. Do try this soup and always always, I love to have your feedback and do share some photos too! Enjoy this hearty soup!
![Akoko Nkate Nkwan (Chicken Groundnut Soup)](https://aftradvillagekitchen.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/P1070203_embossed-340x220-1.jpg)