In Zimbabwe meat is expensive and only cooked during special occasions, although game meats such as antelope are used. In the summer types of squash, yams, and peanuts are more abundant, however, because of their dry winter months a lot of food is preserved through drying and salting. Due to the lack of meat, I was rather surprised to find chicken listed as an ingredient in the dish I chose which was a stew called Huku ne Dovi, but it turns out that it is often omitted. I decided to include it because I figured it might tone down the strong peanut flavor that this stew would likely have. Oddly enough, when I was researching Nigeria, I found an almost exact copy of this recipe but it was called Groundnut Chop and claims to be a Western African dish. Well, considering Zimbabwe is more south and centrally located, I’m betting variations of this dish pop up all over Africa. After a little more research it turns out I was pretty correct in my assumption and this dish is present in many Sub-Saharan countries and can be quite simple or quite elaborate. For many Africans peanuts (groundnuts) are a source of protein since meat can be scarce.
As for taste, well this recipe was all sorts of strange and it might have been just a little too exotic for me. I think this dish is also a great representation of taking ingredients I love and putting them together in a form that I don’t love as much. Now I’m not saying this was horrible by any means, I mean I did eat the entire bowl (although I was very hungry) – it’s just a bizarre ‘stew’. In fact I would have to eat a bite of chicken or sweet potato to kind of clean my palette a little from all the nuttiness. Now I did omit the okra because I just can’t get myself to like the stuff, and I am positive if I added okra to this it would easily go from ‘edible’ to ‘completely inedible’ for me.
I do wish I had read the part at the end of the recipe suggesting it be served with cornbread before grocery shopping because I can see how that might help this, or at least tone down the peanut taste. I will admit, that the more I ate the more I became accustomed to the unusual flavor, but does getting used to a dish mean I will grow to like it? Will I eventually love it? I really am not sure. At this point it’s looking like a ‘no’ but I do have one bowl’s worth of leftovers so we’ll have to see if my perspective changes tomorrow at lunch. Right now I just feel like I need a drink of water from all the peanut butter.
This yields about 2 servings, well “Chelsea-sized” servings which seem to be smaller since I’m having leftovers more frequently than I would like of some dishes.
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2/3 of an onion, chopped
1 1/3 cups vegetable or chicken stock
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter (more traditionally, finely crushed peanuts)
2/3 cups tomatoes, peeled and cut in pieces, juice reserved (canned are fine)
Salt and pepper, to taste
cayenne pepper flakes to taste
2/3 cups cabbage, finely chopped
1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1 turnip, peeled and chopped
6 whole okra, fresh or frozen, with stems trimmed – omitted; I don’t eat nor like okra
1 cup cooked chicken, cut into big chunks (I stuck mine in the pot raw, didn’t seem to matter much since it cooked in no time)
In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat and fry the onions until soft, about 3 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and stir in 1/3 cup of the stock. Whisk in the peanut butter, then stir in the rest of the stock, the tomatoes with their juice, salt and pepper to taste, and the hot pepper. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to low, cover, and let simmer for 30 minutes. Stir in the cabbage, sweet potatoes, carrots, and turnips, bring back to a high boil, then reduce heat to low again, cover, and cook for 20 more minutes. Finally, stir in the okra and chicken chunks, cover, and let stew over low heat for 30 minutes. Ladle the soup into bowls. This soup is often served with cornbread or fried cornmeal mush.