This warm and cozy West African Inspired Sweet Potato Peanut Stew is the best of many worlds. A riff on West African Peanut Soup, it has a tomato and peanut base like its inspiration, plus sweet potatoes, spinach, and (a must!) crunchy peanuts on top.
Peanut butter, spinach, and sweet potato, you say? YES. It’s the MOST glorious combo – trust me.
For us, Sweet Potato Peanut Stew has been a definite dinner-on-repeat over the course of the winter. It has a relatively simple list of ingredients, so it’s an easy throw-together meal for weeknights.
What do we have? Well, these ingredients, for one:
Peanut butter, sweet potatoes, garlic, ginger, onion, crushed tomatoes, and spinach. Plus ground cumin and ground coriander. YUM. AND cayenne pepper for a touch of irresistible heat.
You start by sauteeing the aromatics, then add the broth and sweet potatoes. Simmer until the potatoes are tender, then melt in the peanut butter and stir in the spinach just until wilted.
Serve up with a nice scoop of brown rice and top with lots of chopped salted peanuts and some cilantro and BOOM! Dinner is served.
Do people still say “BOOM?” Probably not.
This stew though! Do it.
Sweet Potato Peanut Stew
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion (diced) (about 2 cups)
- 3 medium cloves garlic (minced)
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
- 1 15-ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 2 medium sweet potatoes (peeled and diced) (about 2 cups)
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground red cayenne pepper (plus or minus to taste)
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt + more to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper + more to taste
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 4 cups packed fresh baby spinach
For serving:
- 2 cups cooked brown rice
Garnish:
- Fresh cilantro
- Chopped salted peanuts
Instructions
- Cook the rice according to package instructions.
- While the rice cooks, make the stew. Set a medium soup pot or Dutch oven over medium-low heat. When hot, add the olive oil and the onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 6-8 minutes. Add the garlic, cumin, and coriander and cook, stirring frequently, for 1 minute.
- Add the broth, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, ginger, cayenne, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Once the stew comes to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered until the sweet potatoes are tender, 8-10 minutes.
- Stir in the peanut butter and the spinach. Stew is done when the peanut butter has distributed and the spinach has wilted, about 2 minutes. Taste and add more salt and pepper if you like.
- Serve with a scoop of brown rice and garnish with cilantro and peanuts.
I’m so glad you’re here! I’m a vegetarian home cook, certified plant-based pro, and mom. I’m married to an enthusiastic carnivore, and my mission is to achieve peace in the kitchen – one tasty recipe at a time. These days, I also try not to ask to speak to the manager.
Loved this recipe. This time last year we were in The Gambia. Fabulous place and wonderful people. A little taste of West Africa. Will make this for family and friends when the pandemic is over. Used a bit less stock but that is the only comment I can make other than is is delucious. Thank you.
Oh I’m so glad this was a hit for you! Thank you so much for the review. Fingers and toes crossed the pandemic is over soon.
I’ve made this soup twice now snd it’s delicious. I added chickpeas for a bit more protein. I doubled it snd used 3/4 cup of peanut butter just to reduce calories a bit.
I meant to give it 5 stars!
A great stew! Made it twice so far. It’s now an instant staple in our kitchen.
My only suggestion would be to at least double the sweet potato (it’s a bit too thin and tomato-ey without more of it). The addition of coriander was inspired, and takes it the next level.
Rachel’s review mentions adding garbanzo beans, which I’ll try next time. And her suggestions to add more PB is also a good one.
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!