How Boiled Peanuts Became a Hawaiʻi Pūpū Staple

This popular Southern snack is a favorite in the Islands.

Go to any poke shop or tailgate party in Hawai‘i and you’ll likely see a bowl full of boiled peanuts.

Not roasted peanuts, not mixed nuts. Peanuts, still in their shells and simmered in a pot of boiling, salty water spiked with star anise.

So how did this snack get to Hawai‘i, anyway? (We don’t have peanut farms here!)

Turns out, like many other local foods, boiled peanuts is a result of the intermixing of immigrant cultures in the Islands. Peanuts are native to South America and, in the 16th century, Spanish and Portuguese explorers spread the crop around the world. It wasn’t until the 1800s, though, that peanuts were grown as a commercial crop in the U.S. And wherever peanuts are grown, says cookbook author and boiled peanut expert Matt Lee, you’ll find boiled peanuts.

“Boiling them is, in many respects, an easier way to apply heat than roasting in an oven,” explains Lee, who, along with his brother, Ted, founded a mail-order source for southern snacks, including boiled peanuts.

While boiled peanuts can be found in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South and North Carolina, only in Hawai‘i are the peanuts boiled with star anise, giving them a unique flavor. 

This story was originally published in our Spring 2024 issue, which you can buy here. Better yet, subscribe and get HAWAIʻI Magazine delivered to right to your mailbox.