Peanut Butter Soup Is The Simple And Rich West African Comfort Food To Try This Fall

Fall flavors are back on shelves at Trader Joe's and Halloween décor is at every store. In our minds, that can only mean one thing: Soup season is back. The classics never fail to hit the spot, from protein-packed chicken noodle to zuppa Toscana. But, if you're in the mood to try something different — and you're not allergic to peanuts — there's a West African comfort food that might just become your new favorite fall soup.

It's called mafé (sometimes spelled maafe). It can take a lot of different forms, but one aspect each recipe has in common is a heaping scoop of creamy peanut butter. Mafé is typically described as spicy and smooth, and pairs savory ingredients, such as onions, tomatoes, okra, eggplant, and chicken, with a creamy peanut sauce. It's a cozy, hearty, veggie-packed soup ready to warm you up from the inside out. It's often served over rice, making one pot of the soup go a long way to feeding a big family. You can also store leftovers in the fridge for a few days of meals.

This dish is one with a rich and storied history, beginning with the fact that when a version of mafé first originated, the peanut butter soup was made without any peanuts at all. Instead, other native groundnuts were used for the nutty flavor. It was only when colonialism brought peanuts to Western Africa that it became an important crop throughout Senegal and other nearby countries. Today, groundnuts remain one of the major pillars of many of these places' economies, so it makes sense that they have also remained a big part of the cuisine that's served there.

Variations on the dish also exist because of preferences in different countries throughout the continent, and sometimes based on what home chefs have on hand. Versatility and using what you have creatively are ideas that are deeply intertwined with the history of mafé. As you might expect, the recipe you choose to follow may produce a soup that significantly differs from one made using a different recipe. Before you start, regardless of the exact version of mafé you pick, check out our tips on avoiding the most common soup-making mistakes.