Peanut Soup

When I was a child we always had peanut soup before Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner.  Just about the time the smell of the turkey sent us all into the kitchen to ask when dinner would be ready Mimi would hand us a steaming mug of peanut soup.  Not enough to kill our holiday appetite, but just enough to satisfy the ravenous beast until the meal was ready.  In hindsight, I don't remember much else about the food at our holiday meals, that peanut soup was hard to beat.
So I told BBDub that he is going to have a new adventure this year and I am going to re-establish the tradition of peanut soup.

Cast of Characters

Dice up the onion and celery.  Saute them with the butter until soft.  Don't let your kids distract you and burn the onions.  However, if you just burn them a little bit the soup will turn out just fine.

Slowly incorporate the flour with your handy dandy flat whisk.  If you don't have a flat whisk, get one!  Run out to the after Christmas sales and treat yourself.  Mine was $8 and one of the best kitchen purchases EVER!

Once the flour is incorporated to the butter, mix in the chicken broth, stirring constantly, bring to a boil.
And remove from heat.

Now here you have two options.Let the soup cool and put it in your blender to create a lovely smooth base.  Or if you have a immersion blender you can just blend it up on the stove top.  My immersion blender is another handy kitchen tool.  They can be quite expensive, but if you stalk one on Amazon you can score quite a deal.  I got mine, with a whisk attachment and chopping bowl for $25.  I have used it many times and think it was worth that price.

Once the broth mixture is blended and smooth add your peanut butter and cream, mix thoroughly.  Return to heat (low) until hot, but do not boil.
Garnish with chopped nuts and serve. 


The ravenous herds will thank you.

You can also serve cold, or cook ahead of time and reheat when you are ready to serve.















Peanut Soup
1 medium onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped 
1/4 cup butter
3 tbl flour
4 cans chicken stock
2 cups smooth peanut butter
2 cups cream
chopped peanuts

Saute onion and celery in butter until soft, not brown.  Add flour and stir in well.
Slowly add chicken stock, stirring constantly and bring to a boil.
Remove from heat and either cool and blend in blender, or use immersion blender to create smooth base.
Return to heat (low) and add cream and peanut butter.  Stir well and heat through.
Serve warm or cold, garnished with chopped nuts.

Enjoy!!