Peanut Soup
FOX 2 in St. Louis showed the peanut soup some love!
Despite having a rain jacket, My Armo and I got wet during an epic rainstorm in Colonial Williamsburg. True to our form of FOMO, we ran around the museum campus damp and chilly for hours. That evening, we were greeted by the warmth of candlelight in King Arm’s Tavern, one of the historic dining options in CW.
I began the meal with peanut soup and that first bite warmed and relaxed my most inner soul. It was creamy with a faint, but lingering peanut flavor; I knew I had to make it.
If you search “King Arm’s peanut soup recipe” online, you’ll find several variations of the recipe. They were decent, but not the flavor or consistency I wanted.
Enter My Armo and another one of his requests. This time it was to make one of George Washington Carver’s peanut recipes. My Armo was gracious enough to supply me with 4 acceptable links to use that listed dozens of recipes. Carver was an ag scientist and one of his legacies was promoting nitrogen-rich crops. You guessed it! Peanuts! Along with information about the legume crop, he shared 105 peanut recipes and I read every. single. one.
True to the time period, most of his recipes are basic in terms of quantities and techniques. By having the luxury of the OG recipe, I cracked the code to the King Arm’s Tavern soup recipe by mistake. Double win? I think so!
Peanut Soup Ingredients
3 Tbl butter
3 Tbl flour
5-6 c water
2 Tbl chicken baste (not in Carver’s version, but in King Arm’s version)
2 ¾ c whole milk
2 ½ c creamy peanut butter
Roasted peanuts (garnish)
Peanut Soup Directions
Make a blonde roux. In a 4 quart sauce pan, melt 3 Tbl butter on gentle heat. Stir in 3 Tbl flour until the mixture is smooth and shiny, but does not change color.
Add 5 c water, 2 Tbl chicken baste, 2 ¾ c whole milk, and 2 ½ c creamy peanut butter to the roux. The quickest way to fully incorporate the ingredients is to use an immersion blender.
Bring it to a boil and down to a simmer for 20 minutes. Taste. Add salt if needed (between the chicken baste and peanut butter, I did not add any) and water if you want to thin it.
Serve the soup in your finest China (we’re eating like gentry here!) and garnish with roasted peanuts.
Notes
For the best consistency of soup, use a creamy peanut butter.
If you’re using the kind of peanut butter that separates, make sure you mix it well before adding it to the soup.
