Mother Africa Peanut Sauce
Chef JJ presents an environment for connection through food that transcends people, memories, and generations.
This is a sauce that tastes good on everything.
You can pour it over a bowl of rice. You can dice up a sweet potato and mix it in as a stew. It tastes delicious with the meat of the chicken thigh crumbled into the mix. This sauce will keep for five days in the fridge and you can eat it every day, in a different way. It’s an easy back-pocket sauce that you can’t mess up. It’s both comfort food and comforting to cook.
Try it with the Udon Noodles with Edamame recipe.
- Prep 15 minutes
- Cook 1 hour
- Servings 4 cups
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1/2 white onion diced
- 1/2 cup coarsely chopped carrots (1 medium carrot)
- 1 plum tomato, chopped
- 1/4 cup finely diced celery (1 rib)
- 1 clove garlic, minced (1 teaspoon)
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 bird's-eye chile, seeded and minced (1 teaspoon)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from 1 lemon)
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 cup unsweetened, creamy peanut butter
- 4 cups vegetable stock
Preparation
Heat the oil in a 4-quart pot over medium heat, add the cumin, and fry for 1 minute, stirring constantly. The cumin will become very aromatic and a few shades darker.
Add the onion, carrots, tomato, celery, garlic, bay leaf, cilantro, chile, salt, and lemon juice, stirring to coat the vegetables in the toasted cumin oil. Sauté until the vegetables soften, about 5 minutes.
Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes. Once the tomato paste is incorporated, add the peanut butter, working it into the vegetables with a little stock, if needed. Cook until the oil separates from the peanut butter, about 5 minutes.
Add the stock and stir, making sure to bring up all of the tomato paste and peanut butter from the bottom o the pot so it is well blended. Increase the heat to medium-hgh to bring the sauce toa simmer. Cook, stirring, for 45 minutes.
Remove the bay leaf. Using an immesion blender, puree the sauce in the pot until smooth. Season with salt to taste.
JJ Johnson
JJ Johnson is a James Beard Award-Winning Chef, TV personality and author known for barrier-breaking cuisine informed by the Caribbean flavors of his upbringing. At FIELDTRIP, his made-to-order rice bowl concept in Harlem and Rockefeller Center, JJ highlights rice as a hero ingredient in globally inspired recipes. JJ is the host of ‘Just Eats with Chef JJ’ on Cleo TV and finalist for the 2022 James Beard Awards ‘Best Chef in New York State’. He serves on the James Beard Impact Programs Advisory Committee and sits on the junior board of Food Bank for New York City, taking action to end hunger.
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