Vegan African Peanut Stew {Vegan, Gluten-Free}
I came across this recipe while I was browsing the internet one day, and the list of ingredients really caught my eye. A sauce consisting of peanut butter?! YUP. Count me in!! Those of you that know me personally, know that peanut butter is basically an entire food group for me. Really, I do eat too much of it. I love baking with it, eating it plain, and now also cooking with it. This vegan african peanut stew is phenomenal. With the wide range of spices, there is a lot of flavor depth to this dish. The ginger, cinnamon, and cloves compliment the sweet potato, and also balance out the mild heat from the poblano. With the addition of beans, this dish is packed with protein, which means it is very filling. This stew is definitely a new favorite of mine, and I will be making it a lot this upcoming fall and winter season!
How to Make Vegan African Peanut Stew: Step-by-Step
1. Peel and cube the sweet potatoes, finely chop the onion and the poblano pepper, and mince the garlic. Poblano peppers are very low on the Scoville Scale, which means they aren’t very hot. If you want to add some heat to this dish, you could substitute with a jalapeno pepper. At this stage, I also like to measure out all my spices and mix them together in a small dish so that they are ready to go!
2. Heat extra light olive oil in a large pot over medium heat until it begins to shimmer. Add onion, pepper, and sweet potato. Saute for 5 minutes, or until the onion is translucent. Add garlic and spices. Cook for an additional 2 minutes.
3. Add tomato paste and peanut butter. Mix until thoroughly combined.
4. Add broth and water. Stir together. Bring everything to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes.
5. Add collard greens and beans. Stir together. Cook for an additional 15 minutes, uncovered. By cooking it uncovered, this will thicken it from a soup to a stew. Additional ways to thicken it, are to boil it uncovered for an additional 5 minutes, or use a hand masher to mash up some of the sweet potatoes. Serve over jasmine rice with a splash of lime juice, topped with chopped peanuts.
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Vegan African Peanut Stew {Vegan, Gluten-Free}
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra light olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed (~2 cups)
- 1/2 poblano pepper, finely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1.5 teaspoons cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch ground cloves
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 1 cup water
- 1-2 cups collard greens, roughly chopped
- 1 15 oz. can cannelllini beans, drained and rinsed
- cooked jasmine rice, chopped peanuts, and lime juice for serving
Instructions
- Heat extra light olive oil in a large pot over medium heat until it begins to shimmer.
- Add onion, pepper, and sweet potato. Saute for 5 minutes, or until the onion is translucent.
- Add garlic and spices. Cook for an additional 2 minutes.
- Add tomato paste and peanut butter. Mix until thoroughly combined.
- Add broth and water. Stir together. Bring everything to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Add collard greens and beans. Stir together. Cook for an additional 15 minutes, uncovered.
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This dish sounds absolutely amazing! Of course, I’m probably biased, as I am also a lover of peanut butter 🙂 I am definitely going to give this one a try. Can’t wait to taste the mingling of the seasonings with the peanut butter!
Yum this sounds delicious. I love to add new cuisines to our rotation and anything with peanut is great!
Ok. I’m West African and this is our traditional dish. First, we call it soup not stew; our stews are tomato based. The peanut soup (or groundnut soup) base is similar across the West African region with slight variations. Your version is very good and I love the spices (anything with garlic and ginger I love) you used however it’s not the traditional way as we don’t use garlic in soups and most of those other spices. We also use W/African palm oil which is sustainable as the oil palm grows wild and is a source of income for communities so they maintain its harvest well. No worries. It’s hard to find authentic ingredients but if you have an African store in your area, try visiting to see and smell the different spices we have, depending on country/region, of course. I really like that you’re exploring other cuisines and our foods can be carb heavy but can be adapted for healthy eating such as eliminating palm oil and starch. Hope you enjoyed it. If you want to make more soups, google Egusi (melon soup). Well done!
Thank you Kemi for all of your information! 🙂 To be honest, I had no knowledge of the original dish, because I’ve never actually had authentic African food unfortunately. It’s weird, because the college that I went to was in a town that had a huge range of cuisines (not NYC huge, but still very impressive). I must say though, that this dish was REALLY good! I am a very exploratory person when it comes to foods, and I’m excited to try more African dishes. It sounds like they are a good match for me, because they are carbohydrate heavy, and I love carbs 🙂 Hopefully I can get to Africa some day (I am afraid of flying!) so that I can try out the cuisine there for real!
Seems like a great yet doable recipe. Seems pretty similar to peanut curry that we make at home. Will give this one a try too! Thanks
I learnt how to cook some dishes with peanut butter from my grandma and yes, the dishes never disappoint. I’m certain that yours too is no exception since it looks so yummy!
Mmmmmm this sounds so tasty! I love peanut sauces and mixing it with all those spices takes it to a whole other level!!
wow a stew from sweet potatoes, loved your recipe. Bookmarking it for trying.
This recipe looks delicious and peanut is also one of my favourite ingredients too! I also like the fact that it serves a lot of people as I am always cooking for lots.
I am loving the sound of this African Peanut Stew recipe. I can see myself trying it one day.
This looks and sounds so yum! I would try and make it soon!
Love,
K x
This looks so delicious I will have to try it out! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
This dish looks wow! I would love to try this at my home.
Wow looks delicious, thanks for sharing 🙂