My partner and I recently moved back to Sydney so I’m in the process of setting up my new kitchen. I’ll share the process of building-up my vegan pantry again in an upcoming post, but until I’ve finished all that… we need to eat! And this vegan African peanut stew with sweet potatoes and beans is the answer.
A few days ago, I was texting back and forth with my good friend Jodi from Toronto. (Side note: how people maintained overseas friendships before iMessage is beyond me! It’s a life-changer!) Jodi was making an African peanut stew for dinner. She said that it’s one of her all-time favorite healthy recipes. I took a look at it and fell in love instantly. Peanut butter? Beans? Sweet Potato? Stop right there… You had me at peanut butter!
Seriously though, since this sweet potato stew was already vegan and the ingredients are fresh or really basic pantry items, it was a perfect recipe to make in my “new” but sparsely stocked kitchen.
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Recipe Notes – Vegan African Peanut Stew with Sweet Potatoes and Beans
- I substituted kidney beans for black beans. This is probably going to sound weird to those of you in North America, but canned black beans are almost impossible to find in Sydney. As soon as I find a place that sells them, I buy them out and hoard every single last can of them. Sure, I know that dried black beans are available here and are “pretty easy” to prepare. But based on the amount of email I get from Australians looking for canned black beans, I know I’m not the only one looking for the convenience of cans. (Hmm… Maybe I should look into starting a canned black bean import business?)
- I used vegetable broth instead of water. Feel-free to just use plain water, but I’m one of those people who thinks everything taste better with broth.
- I used frozen peas instead of frozen corn. I got home from buying the sweet potato and the kidney beans for this recipe, only to realize that I had forgotten to pick up frozen corn. Luckily, I had just made my mom’s Minestrone Soup a few days before, so I had some frozen peas leftover. Sometimes you just have to work with what you’ve got, and luckily the peas worked out beautifully.
- I used crushed red chili flakes instead of fresh chili peppers because they’re consistent and I can control the heat.
- I upped the garlic, and added fresh ginger. Before tossing the greens in at the end, I tasted the stew and thought that it was missing something. I did a quick Google search for similar stews and found that most of the recipes used more garlic, as well as fresh ginger and dried coriander. Because I’m still in the process of building my pantry, I didn’t have any ground coriander on hand, but I did have a knob of fresh ginger in the fridge. I quickly fried up some minced ginger with an additional clove of garlic and added it to the stew. It made a big difference to the overall taste, so I’ve included that in the recipe below. I’ve also included the ground coriander as optional, as I’m sure it would be even better with that if you’ve got some on hand.
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Look at that delicious African peanut and sweet potato stew. Give it a try, I’m confident you’ll love it as much as I do!
Looking for more one-pot meals?
- Coconut Curry Lentil Soup
- Creamy Cashew Kale & Chickpeas
- Oven-Baked Mexican Quinoa Casserole
- All my vegan one-pot meals
African Peanut Stew with Sweet Potatoes and Beans
This delicious vegan and gluten-free stew is made of pantry staples. It’s hearty enough to hold-up on its own, or serve it with rice or quinoa and get more servings out of it.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
- Total Time: 55 mins
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Main
- Cuisine: African, Vegan
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 tbsp fresh minced ginger
- 1/2 tsp crushed red chili pepper
- 1 – 14.5 oz (400 g) can crushed or diced tomatoes
- ½ cup peanut butter (or almond butter or sunflower butter)
- 1 tsp dried coriander (optional)
- 2 cups vegetable broth (or water)
- 1 medium sweet potato (about 1 lb), peeled and diced
- 1 can kidney or black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 ½ cups frozen peas (or frozen/canned corn)
- 2 cups hearty leafy greens (spinach, arugula, kale, collard)
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- If you’re using a can of diced tomatoes, blend them along with their juice for a few seconds in the food processor or blender, just to break them up.
- Heat the oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft but not brown, about 10 minutes.
- Add the garlic, ginger and chili and cook for about 5 minutes to soften.
- Add the tomatoes, stir to combine then add the peanut butter (and coriander, if using), stirring it in until smooth.
- Stir in the broth add sweet potatoes. Cover the pan and simmer until the sweet potatoes are tender but not falling apart, about 15 minutes.
- Add the black beans, peas/corn, greens and cook until the beans and peas/corn are heated through and the greens are wilted.
- Season with salt and pepper, and add additional crushed chili flakes, as per your heat preference.
Notes
Adapted from http://www.sunbutter.com/recipes-African-Stew
Keywords: arugula, bean, corn, easy, favorite, freezer-friendly, ginger, gluten-free, kale, make-ahead, nut butter, one-pot, pea, soy-free, spinach, stove top, sweet potato, vegan, african food, african peanut stew
