What it is
A thick soup thickened with ground roasted groundnuts, which give it a nutty taste and a pale brown colour. The paste is stirred into stock and cooked slowly so the oil separates and the soup loses any raw taste.
Key ingredients
- Ground roasted groundnuts or groundnut paste
- Meat or chicken
- Dried fish
- Ground pepper
- Onions
- Ground crayfish
- Vegetables such as spinach or ugu
A list of what goes in, not a recipe. Quantities and method vary by household.
How it is eaten
Eaten with tuwo, rice or a swallow such as eba or pounded yam, depending on the region.
Cultural significance
Groundnuts are a major crop of northern Nigeria, and the groundnut pyramids of Kano were once a symbol of the region, so groundnut soups sit naturally in northern cooking as miyan gyada. Versions are also cooked in the Middle Belt and the south, and the soup belongs to a wider West African family that includes Ghanaian nkatenkwan.
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