Groundnut is another name for peanuts. You can find the groundnut paste, which is not as sweet as regular peanut butter, in health food stores.

Although called a nut, groundnuts are actually a legume. The nuts are the seeds contained in the cardboard like skin that is so readily familiar. The groundnut name has it origins in the nature of the plant which bends to the ground to bury its ovary after it is done flowering. The seeds then mature into the “nut” that is so familiar.

Groundnuts are most commonly roasted.