Vegetarian West African Stew

My friend, Jayme, sent me this recipe last week. It had been handed down to her, and she thought of me and passed it along. I was immediately skeptical about this recipe, because it calls for peanuts. Kevin have always been less than thrilled with nuts in his food, despite the fact that he likes nuts. In the past, when I've crusted things with almonds, or thrown cashews into the rice, he has shown obvious dislike. That being said, I've been anxious to try cooking with peanuts, and Jayme assured me that it didn't have a peanut-heavy flavor.

Anyway... Fast forward to Tuesday evening, when I whipped up this stew. First of all, this is so easy to prepare. Even grinding the peanuts is fun, though I'm sure you could just use organic peanut butter in its place (I think if you use JIF, it would be a little too sweet and salty for the stew). The end product is positively delicious. It has a smokey, salty, sweet flavor, and the peanuts lend a subtle, nutty flavor. The stew definitely doesn't have a strong peanut flavor, but the peanuts are absolutely essential to the deep flavor. The other thing to note about this stew, is that it makes a TON of food. We have leftovers scattered throughout the fridge, and every time I open it, I am excited to see more chickpeas. Weird? Perhaps. But I guess that's the sign of a good meal, right?




Make this! It's a delicious, vegetarian, super healthy meal, that will last a week! 4.5 Bowls (it takes a lot to be a 5 Bowler, know what I mean?)!

Vegetarian West African Soup


This hearty one-dish meal is packed with fiber and can be ready in less than an hour.


Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 1 1/2 cups)


2/3 cup roasted peanuts
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
2 cups chopped onion
6 cups (1-inch) cubed peeled sweet potato
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 (15 1/2-ounce) cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained
2 (14 1/2-ounce) cans vegetable broth
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
Flat-leaf parsley sprigs (optional)

Place peanuts in a food processor; process until smooth (about 2 minutes), scraping sides of bowl once.

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion; saut� 7 minutes or until lightly browned. Add peanut butter, potato, and next 6 ingredients (potato through tomatoes); bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, 30 minutes or until potato is tender. Garnish with parsley, if desired.


CALORIES 477 (18% from fat); FAT 9.4g (sat 1.3g,mono 3.5g,poly 3.3g); IRON 3.2mg; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 110mg; CARBOHYDRATE 89.7g; SODIUM 904mg; PROTEIN 13g; FIBER 13.1g

Cooking Light, OCTOBER 2002

Peanut Butter Banana Bread

As if the chocolate wasn't enough, I absolutely had to try the peanut butter version, the following day. Sadly, I didn't have quite enough banana, so I had to substitute a half cup of pumpkin, but that's okay. Anyway, this is another winner. Not only does it have a delicious peanut butter banana flavor, but there are chopped roasted peanuts inside, and a deliciously sweet glaze, that hardens on the top, like the outside of a doughnut. Good gravy, these 2 banana breads are so perfect, I will never need to search for a new one. Anyone want to come over and share? Seriously - I have a TON of banana bread. I could use a dessert companion. I'll make the coffee.



Make this. I'm serious.

Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Yield: 16 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

Bread:
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana
1/3 cup plain fat-free yogurt
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
6.75 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
2 tablespoons chopped dry-roasted peanuts
Cooking spray

Glaze:
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon 1% low-fat milk
1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. To prepare bread, combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed. Add granulated and brown sugars; beat until blended.

3. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through allspice) in a small bowl. Add flour mixture to banana mixture; beat just until blended. Stir in nuts. Pour batter into a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 5 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven; cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Remove bread from pan; cool.

4. To prepare glaze, combine powdered sugar, milk, and 1 tablespoon peanut butter in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Drizzle glaze over bread.


CALORIES 198 ; FAT 7.4g (sat 2.3g,mono 2.7g,poly 1.8g); CHOLESTEROL 28mg; CALCIUM 27mg; CARBOHYDRATE 29.7g; SODIUM 200mg; PROTEIN 4.7g; FIBER 1.9g; IRON 1.1mg

Cooking Light, OCTOBER 2010

Peanut Butter - Chocolate Chip - Oatmeal Cookies

These cookies, from Sunset Magazine (November 2003) really have a lot of goodies in them. Peanuts, peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate chips, cocoa... What more could you ask for? My family was coming for lunch yesterday, so I decided to be the dessert maker, since my mom was bringing lunch for everyone. I whipped up these babies pretty quickly, while my daughter sat in her high chair and giggled at me for making such a disastrous mess. One thing I'll say about these cookies, is that they had a very sensitive cooking time, which seems to be the reason that all my cookies tend to fail. I ended up cooking these a tad too long, resulting in sadly crunchy cookies. They weren't burnt, but looked overdone, which was not helped by the fact that there was cocoa in them, so they were dark to begin with. Anyway, I'm sure this will be a redundant tip to most people, but an excellent solution to the problem of crunchy cookies (that are supposed to be soft), is to put them in a closed container, with a piece of bread. Within a fairy short amount of time (an hour is fine, but more time is better), the cookies soften tremendously. It is truly amazing. You can do this with stale cookies, or fresh cookies. The only problem with this strategy, is that it can cause the cookies to become so soft, they break at the lightest touch. Anyway, the cookies seemed to be a hit, though I'm sure no one would tell me if they didn't like them! I liked them, too, though I think I'd rather have a cupcake...



The Critique
I've not been the biggest fan of Marji's desserts, but this one truly blew me away. These cookies tasted great! They were really like professional cookies. They were just the right consistency and the chocolate chips were soft and gooey in the middle. I loved the flavor of the cookie itself and the only problem I have now is limiting my intake. I would like to try them without peanuts, since I'm not the biggest fan of nuts in my cookies, but it worked well.

4 bowls