West African Maafe - My Version
When I lived in France, I had a close friend who owned a West African restaurant. There were several dishes that she made that I would eat on repeat every time I visited her, including a delicious groundnut stew called maafe. She made hers with braised oxtail, sweet potatoes and collard greens, and the combination of spices and rich sauce was truly outstanding.
I don't think I have eaten maafe in a decade but, a few nights ago, I suddenly started thinking about it. Since I am mostly a plant-based eater these days, oxtail didn't particularly appeal, and I am also a big proponent of working with what I already have in my pantry and fridge. This is how my version of the dish came to life: honeynut squash, black garbanzo beans, and turnip greens, with creamy peanut butter providing the requisite groundnut flavor.
The honeynut squash seemed a relatively natural stand-in for the sweet potatoes I remembered from my friend's version, while the black garbanzos gave the stew enough substance that I didn't miss the meat. The turnip greens brought the slightly bitter green element I remembered from her collard greens. It is certainly not her maafe, but it brought back enough of what I loved about it to make me wonder why on earth I had waited so long to eat this again.
You can take this recipe in two slightly different directions. The first version uses the warm spices, ginger, and chili I remember from my friend’s peanut and tomato base. For the second (the one that I actually made) since I had a cup of homemade Oaxacan mole negro left over from another dinner which would roughly add the flavors I was looking for as well as the cocoa I planned on using as I often find pumpkin and squash too sweet, I used that.
Mole and maafe clearly come from entirely different culinary traditions, but the mole contained chiles, spices, nuts, and seeds that worked remarkably well with the peanut-rich stew. I left out the additional dried spices and let the mole bring its own considerable personality to dinner. You can buy premade mole in the Mexican section of your grocery store which makes making this dish very simple.
This was enough on its own though you could add millet or any other nutty grain if you wanted a more substantial meal.
Makes four portions and freezes well.
1 medium honeynut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into one-inch chunks
2 cups cooked black garbanzo beans, or regular chickpeas from the can, rinsed and drained
2 cups finely chopped turnip greens
2 cups finely chopped tomatoes, fresh or canned
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 fresh Scotch Bonnet or other hot chili, pricked with a fork in several locations but left whole
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup creamy organic peanut butter
3 cups vegetable broth, plus more as needed
1 Tbsp olive or vegetable oil
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne
or
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 lime
Heat the oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Add the onion with a pinch of salt and cook for six to eight minutes, until soft and translucent. Add the garlic, ginger, bay leaf, and the Scotch bonnet and cook for about a minute.
If using, add the cumin, coriander, smoked paprika and cayenne and stir for about thirty seconds, just until fragrant. If using mole, this will be added later.
Add the tomatoes and cook for five to ten minutes, stirring occasionally, until they have broken down and become considerably more concentrated.
Add the vegetable stock to the pan and heat until it comes to a gentle simmer.
Add the honeynut squash to the pan. Partially cover and cook for about ten minutes, then add the black garbanzos. Continue simmering until the squash is tender but still holding its shape, about another ten to 15 minutes. You can add a little more broth if the stew becomes thicker than you want it.
Add the turnip greens and cook for another five to ten minutes, until tender.
Put the peanut butter in a bowl and gradually whisk in some of the warm vegetable broth from the pan until smooth. Stir this mixture into the tomatoes, along with the mole, if using.
Bring back to a simmer before removing from the heat and preparing to serve.
Taste and add salt and black pepper. Remove the Scotch bonnet. Add hot sauce if the spice level needs adjusting.
Finish with a generous squeeze of lime.
This may have taken an extremely circuitous geographical route to the dinner table, but destinations occasionally deserve a successful crossover recipe. In fact, I am not ashamed to admit that, having made the crossover and thought that it was extraordinarily good, I have some of the remainder with corn tortillas as a sort of international taco for lunch the next day.