🍢 SNACK
Kitaba (Angolan Spiced Peanut Paste)
Freshly roasted peanuts pounded with hot chili and sea salt into a coarse, crunchy, fiery paste, eaten by the spoonful as a snack or stirred into peanut stews.
Angolan · easy · serves 8
prep 10 min · cook 15 min
~213 cal · 10g protein · 6g carbs · 18g fat · 3g fiber · 2g sugars · 3g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Kitaba, also spelled quitaba, is a crunchy paste of roasted peanuts seasoned with chili pepper. Peanuts, ginguba in Angola, are one of the country's essential ingredients: roasted over coals by street vendors, sugared into paracuca, and cooked into moamba de ginguba, the peanut chicken stew.
Kitaba is the simplest of them all. Roasted peanuts are pounded or blended with hot chili, the small gindungo peppers that grow abundantly in Angola or a , and salt, and left coarse enough to crunch. It is nutty, salty and hot at once, and the heat is up to the cook.
It is eaten on its own as a snack, by the spoonful, and it also goes into the peanut-based stews and sauces of Angolan cooking. One Angolan recipe book has it spread in a thin, even layer on a board once it is made.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 8
- 2 cups (about 300 g) raw shelled peanuts
- 1 to 3 gindungo (piri-piri) or chilies, stems removed, to taste
- 1 tsp sea salt
Instructions
- 1Heat the oven to 180C (350F). Spread the peanuts on a baking tray and roast for 12 to 15 minutes, shaking once, until golden and fragrant.
- 2Tip them onto a clean cloth, let them cool for a few minutes, then rub them in the cloth to loosen the papery skins and blow or pick the skins away.
- 3Pound the peanuts with the chili and salt in a mortar, or pulse them in a food processor, until you have a coarse, crumbly paste with plenty of crunchy pieces. Stop before it turns smooth and oily.✎ Chef’s noteWear gloves to handle Scotch bonnets, and add the chili a little at a time, tasting as you go.
- 4Eat by the spoonful, or press it thinly onto a board and cut it into small pieces. Keep the rest in a closed jar.
Angolan home and street-food tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Luanda. The chilli sits on the table rather than in the pot. Gindungo is the condiment, small hot peppers worked with garlic and oil and added by whoever wants it, and the peanut version of the stew, moamba de ginguba, is the other one worth knowing after the palm oil original.
🗺️
Angola. Angolan cooking blends African staples with Portuguese influence, funge (cassava porridge), muamba de galinha (palm-oil chicken stew), and grilled fish. Beans, okra, and fiery gindungo pepper define a hearty coastal table.
🌍
Africa. Much of what reads as timeless African cooking is younger than the Atlantic crossings. Maize, cassava, groundnut, chilli and tomato all arrived from the Americas after 1500 and pushed older crops aside; millet, sorghum, teff, yam and fonio are the ones that were already here, and the map still shows the join.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Angola
Muamba de GalinhaAngola’s national dish: chicken stewed golden in palm oil with okra, garlic, and chili until the sauce turns silk.
Pão de MilhoAngolan corn bread: a moist, golden cornmeal loaf, faintly sweet and rich with coconut, sliced for breakfast with butter and coffee.
MufeteGrilled fish with beans, cassava, and sweet potato under a tangy palm-oil and onion sauce, an Angolan coastal feast.
Browse all Angola recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Food processor, Mortar and pestle.
Storing it: Best straight off the heat. Leftovers keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated and reheat well in a hot oven rather than the microwave.
Make it an Angola meal
KissanguaDrink
Cocada AmarelaDessert
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Kitaba (Angolan Spiced Peanut Paste)?
Freshly roasted peanuts pounded with hot chili and sea salt into a coarse, crunchy, fiery paste, eaten by the spoonful as a snack or stirred into peanut stews.
Where does Kitaba (Angolan Spiced Peanut Paste) come from?
Kitaba (Angolan Spiced Peanut Paste) is an Angolan dish from Luanda, Angola.
Can Kitaba (Angolan Spiced Peanut Paste) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Kitaba (Angolan Spiced Peanut Paste) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Kitaba (Angolan Spiced Peanut Paste) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Kitaba (Angolan Spiced Peanut Paste) take to make?
About 25 minutes total (10 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 8.
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