Tiga Dège Na

History

Tiga dège na, whose name literally means “peanut sauce” in Bambara, is a Malian beef stew simmered at length in a thick sauce of peanut paste, tomatoes and onions, its rich, smooth texture recalling satay served as a sauce rather than on skewers.

Known as “maafe” in several neighboring West African countries, this dish holds a daily place in Malian eating habits, served with white rice or pounded yam; the rich, nourishing peanut paste makes it especially prized during the dry season, when protein is scarcer.

Ingredients — serves 4

• 600 g beef, cut into pieces
• 200 g pure peanut paste
• 3 tomatoes
• 2 onions
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• Chili, salt

Tiga dège na, step by step

1. Brown the beef pieces in a little oil with the chopped onion.
2. Add the crushed tomatoes and the tomato paste, then let simmer a few minutes.
3. Cover with water and let simmer over low heat until the meat starts to tenderize.
4. Thin the peanut paste with a little hot broth to loosen it.
5. Stir the loosened peanut paste into the pot and let simmer much longer, stirring regularly so it doesn’t catch.
6. Serve hot with white rice, once the sauce has thickened enough and a little peanut oil rises to the surface.

Cooking method

Technique: long, regularly stirred simmering once the peanut paste is added, to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Traditional equipment: a cast-iron pot, pure peanut paste traditionally pounded in a mortar.
Signs it’s ready: the sauce is ready when it has thickened and a light film of peanut oil appears on the surface.

Nutrition, per serving

Calculated from the raw ingredient quantities above, divided by four servings. Protein is the number worth pausing on here: between the beef and the pure peanut paste, tiga dège na delivers 44 g of protein per serving, more than most Malian staples built around grains alone.

Notable amount: roughly 5 g of fiber per serving from the peanut paste, which is unusual for a meat-forward stew and comes on top of its already high protein and fat content.

Economic context

Peanuts are a domestically grown crop across much of West Africa, which keeps tiga dège na’s core ingredient affordable relative to imported proteins — one of the reasons the dish, and its maafe variants, hold a genuinely daily place on the table rather than being reserved for special occasions.

Source: World Bank / FAO, Food Prices for Nutrition database (Cost and Affordability of a Healthy Diet) v4.0, 2024 data, CC BY 4.0, DOI 10.57966/41AN-KY81. Retrieved 29 July 2026. This figure describes the cost of a healthy diet in Mali generally — it is not a costing of this specific recipe.

Who this dish suits

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