African Peanut Soup with Quinoa

Holy cow do I really have 21 followers?!

That's super awesome guys, and some of you aren't even my close friends and family, so I know this wee speck in the vast infinity of the blogosphere is gettin' out there in some little way :)

(not to say I don't LOVE that my friends and family follow V.V.! <3)

I figured out that you can actually check your blog 'stats' on blogger and it seems that my spicy peanut noodle soup blog gets hit up hella often.  For those who can't get enough of peanut soup deliciousness, here is my recipe for an African inspired version, full of yummy and HEALTHY quinoa, that I hope you love!

That's our couch monkey in the picture with the soup.  Bee found him abandoned in our storage closet and he now lives on the arm of her big, pink sofa.

African Peanut Soup with Quinoa

Ingredients:

-2 tbsp veg oil

-1 large red onion, peeled and diced

-2 large carrots, peeled and diced

-1 large yam, peeled and diced

-6 to 8 cloves garlic, peeled and...roughly chopped ;)

-2 tsp (or more) chili flakes

-6 cups veggie stock or water

-1/4 cup soy sauce

-1 cup quinoa

-1 can coconut milk

-1/2 cup natural chunky peanut butter

-1/2 cup chopped cilantro, plus more for garnish (or flat-leaf parsley if you hate cilantro)

-S&P

-chopped peanuts and sriracha sauce for garnish

Heat the veg oil in your favorite soup pot over medium heat.  Saute the onion, carrot, yam and garlic and chili flakes for five minutes uncovered then place the lid on the pot and cook for a further 10 - 15 min or until the veggies are tender.  

Add the veggie stock or water and soy sauce and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer the soup for about 15 minutes or until the sweet potatoes and carrots are easily smushed by a fork.  

Using an immersion blender (hand blender) puree the soup until very smooth.  If you do not have an immersion blender, transfer SMALL amounts of the soup to a blender at a time and puree.  BE CAREFUL!  Hot soup will expand once you turn that blender on and if it's too full, it could explode and give you a mighty burn.

Once the soup is pureed, add the quinoa and bring the soup back to a boil over medium-high.  Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the quinoa is fully cooked (about 12 min).  Then stir in the coconut milk, peanut butter and cilantro.  Season the soup with S&P.

Garnish with a sprinkle of cilantro and chopped peanuts (and a swirl of sriracha for those who like it HAWT!)

Hope you enjoy this as much as my other peanut soup recipe :)

XOXO
V.V.