Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Maafe
A rich West African groundnut stew of peanut butter, tomato, and root vegetables simmered around tender meat.
Malian · easy · serves 6
prep 20 min · cook 75 min
~679 cal · 52g protein · 23g carbs · 43g fat · 6g fiber · 9g sugars · 13g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Maafe (or mafé) is the great groundnut stew of Mali and the wider Mandé world, meat and root vegetables simmered in a rich, savory sauce built on peanut butter, tomato, and onion until thick and comforting. Peanuts, brought from the Americas, became so central to West African cooking that this stew is now a defining dish of the region.
In Bamako and across Mali it is Sunday and gathering food, the peanut sauce coating chunks of beef or lamb along with , sweet potato, carrot, and cabbage. The balance of nutty richness, tomato acidity, and gentle heat is what makes a good maafe memorable.
Ladled generously over rice, it is warming and generous by nature, a dish meant to feed a crowd and stretch to whoever arrives at the table. Versions spread across West Africa, but its Mandé heartland claims it as a cornerstone of home.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally 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 6
2 lb beef or lamb, cubed
1 cup natural peanut butter
3 tbsp tomato paste
2 chopped tomatoes
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp ( locust beans / dawadawa)
Hard to find? fermented black beans (douchi), or a spoonful of dark miso - both bring the fermented, salty depth; miso is smoother and less funky than the real thing, and check the label if you need it gluten-free, since some misos are made with barley
1 a
1 sweet potato
2 carrot
1/4 head cabbage
Instructions
1
Brown the meat (or leave the vegetables raw) with the onion and garlic in a heavy pot.
2
Stir in the tomato paste and cook a minute, then add the chopped tomatoes and enough water to cover.
3
Whisk the peanut butter (or sunbutter) with a ladle of the hot broth until smooth, then stir it back into the pot.
✎ Chef’s note
Loosening the peanut butter with hot broth first keeps it from seizing into clumps when it hits the pot.
4
Add the root vegetables, soumbala, and Scotch bonnet.
✎ Chef’s note
Soumbala (fermented locust beans) is what gives Malian maafe its deep, savoury backbone; mash it into the sauce so it dissolves.
5
Simmer gently for 45 to 60 minutes, until the sauce is thick and the oil rises to the top.
6
Serve over rice or with fufu, spooning the glossy sauce over everything.
Bamako home cooking.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Bamako. The river supplies the protein. Capitaine and tilapia are smoked or dried and go into the sauces, millet and sorghum are pounded into porridges and into to, and the drinks are homemade: bissap from hibiscus and a fierce ginger infusion, both sold cold from tied plastic bags.
🗺️
Mali. Mali calls its peanut stew tigadegena, and it is not quite the Senegalese maafe it is usually conflated with: the Malian version is traditionally thinner and made with unrefined shea butter, and it goes over rice or millet rather than rice alone. Getting the two apart matters, because the same nut behaves differently in each pot.
🌍
Africa. Africa's fifty-four nations hold cuisines as different as Morocco's slow-cooked tagines and South Africa's open-fire braai, yet shared threads run through them: ancient grains like millet, sorghum, and teff; stews thickened with groundnut, okra, or palm; and fiery condiments from Tunisian harissa to Ethiopian berbere. Staple starches, fufu, injera, ugali, couscous, anchor communal meals often eaten by hand from a shared dish, where hospitality is a point of honor.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Mali
MaasaMalian pancake-doughnuts: lightly fermented rice-and-millet batter fried into golden puffs and dusted with sugar, sold hot from roadside pans.
FakoyeA slippery jute-leaf sauce with meat and smoked fish, served over rice or with tô, a Malian and Sahelian favorite.
MoniMali's millet porridge of tiny hand-rolled flour pearls simmered in tamarind-soured water and sweetened, eaten at breakfast and Ramadan.
Browse all Mali recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan, Whisk.
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
Make it a Mali meal
DèguèDrink
Meni-Meniyong (Sesame and Honey Brittle)Dessert
FakoyeLunch
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Frequently asked questions
What is Maafe?
A rich West African groundnut stew of peanut butter, tomato, and root vegetables simmered around tender meat.
Where does Maafe come from?
Maafe is a Malian dish from Bamako, Mali.
Can Maafe be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Maafe recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Maafe 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 count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), 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 Maafe take to make?
About 95 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 75 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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