African Sweet Potato Stew
With tomatoes, sweet potatoes & kale, plus peanut butter and a little spice, this African Sweet Potato Stew delivers flavor & nutrition!
I first fell in love with African Sweet Potato Stew many years ago when my CSA offered it as a winter buying option. Yes, by turning some seasonal produce into tasty frozen soups, they could extemd their season–and help out busy members as well. Genius!
And the versatile soup also saved me one Christmas Eve. That year, despite careful planning, I realized–right before hosting dinner for 20–that neither of my chosen entrees (ham and Salisbury Steak) would work for my vegetarian niece,
My solution was to serve this vegan African Sweet Potato Stew for the soup course! Besides saving the day, it was such a huge hit, I had to limit seconds to have leftovers for blog pics!
What is African Sweet Potato Stew?
African Sweet Potato Stew is a hearty soup of west African origin. It may also be called West African Peanut Stew or Sweet Potato Peanut Soup and a variety of other names.
Interestingly, many of the African variations contain chicken or other poultry, but it seems to have morphed to a vegan soup in most American versions. This particular recipe is based on one from Pinch of Yum.
Per Wikipedia, Peanut Stew “is a stew that is a staple food in Western Africa… Recipes for the stew vary widely, but commonly include chicken, tomato, onion, garlic, cabbage, and leaf or root vegetables.”
Why You’ll Love This!
Flavorful. Full of lightly sweet, spicy and creamy (from the peanut butter) flavors, African Sweet Potato Stew is a taste sensation!
Healthy. With tomatoes, sweet potatoes and kale (or spinach), this Sweet Potato and Peanut Stew delivers big on nutrition!
Crowd-pleasing. This soup is vegan, but it is still thick and hearty. That means everyone from vegans to carnivores will love it!
What You’ll Need
Ingredients
- Oil. This is used to sautee the vegetables. Use olive oil for its health benefits, or your favorite oil.
- Onion, Jalapeño, Garlic. These add flavor and balance the sweetness of the sweet potatoes.
- Sweet potatoes. These provide a lot of nutrition and a major flavor component.
- Fire roasted tomatoes with green chilies. These add tomato and spice flavor. If you’d prefer to use fresh or frozen tomatoes instead that’s fine. Just add an additional jalapeno pepper too.
- Coconut milk. This adds flavor and helps to form the soup broth (with some water).
- Curry, Turmeric. These add more exotic flavor.
- Peanuts, peanut butter. These add flavor, protein and a little crunch.
- Kale or spinach. In the winter, organic spinach is easier to find.
- Optional hot sauce, cilantro. For extra flavor and/or garnish.
Special Tools
- No special tools are needed.
Step by Step Overview
Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, jalapeño and sweet potato cubes. Saute until vegetables are just starting to caramelize. Stir in the spices.
Add tomatoes, coconut milk, water, and peanuts and bring to a simmer. Simmer 5-10 minutes to blend flavors and ensure that sweet potatoes are tender.
Remove some of the hot broth to a spearate bowl and dissolve the peanut butter in it. Stir back into the soup.
Chop kale or spinach, then add to the stew. Taste and add hot sauce if you’d like some additional heat.
Garnish with cilantro to serve (optional).
Tips & FAQs
Both spinach and kale are usually on the EWG dirty dozen list of most contaminated fruits and vegetables, go organic if you can. I find local organic kale easy to find in summer, but in the winter, I switch to organic spinach.
I like to cut my own sweet potatoes since I try to eat local. But on days I’m super busy (like when I served this for 20 people Christmas Eve) I fall back to buying pre-cut which can really streamline prep.
If you decide to cut your own sweet potatoes, they won’t cut up into consistent amounts.
So you may end up with a chunk of leftover sweet potato when you have your 3 cups of cubes. If you have a giant piece left, you may just want to serve it for a later dinner. But a smaller amount can be cut up and added to the soup. The soup pictured today had 4 cups of sweet potato cubes after we cut up two very large sweet potatoes.
Jalapeño peppers vary in intensity. This stew should have a slight kick, so if you get an unusually mild pepper, feel free to add a dash or so of hot sauce to add the spice. Besides hot sauce, the other optional ingredient is cilantro. If you’re a cilantro fan, t’s a great compliment to the stew flavors. But I serve it on the side to spare the cilantro tastes like soap crowd.
New Year New You Recipes
- African Sweet Potato Stew from Art of Natural Living
- Chicken and Broccoli Skillet from That Recipe
- Healthy Crockpot Pork Tenderloin from Jen Around the World
- Portobello Stroganoff from A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
- Zero Oil Veggie and Millet Noodle Soup from Magical Ingredients
We share Recipes From Our Dinner Table! Join our group and share your recipes, too! While you’re at it, join our Pinterest board, too!
Sweet Potato and Peanut Stew
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons oil
- 1/2 onion diced
- 1 jalapeño pepper minced
- 2 cloves garlic minced or garlic-pressed
- 3-4 cups sweet potatoes peeled and cubed, about 3 sweet potatoes
- 14 ounces fire roasted tomatoes with Green Chilies
- 14 ounces coconut milk
- 2 cups water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon curry
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/2 cup peanuts chopped
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 2 cups kale or spinach, coarsely chopped
- hot sauce optional, to taste, if desired
- cilantro to garnish, optional
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, jalapeño and sweet potato cubes. Saute until vegetables are just starting to caramelize. Stir in the spices.
- Add tomatoes, coconut milk, water, and peanuts and bring to a simmer. Simmer 5-10 minutes to blend flavors and ensure that sweet potatoes are tender.
- Remove some of the hot broth to a spearate bowl and dissolve the peanut butter in it. Stir back into the soup.
- Chop kale or spinach, then add to the stew. Taste and add hot sauce if you’d like some additional heat.
- Garnish with cilantro to serve (optional).
Nutrition
Updated from the original published Dec 27, 2018.
I have an African peanut soup that is so delicious. I can’t wait to try this sweet potato stew. I am a total sweet potato lover and don’t put all that cinnamon and sugar on them.
Love the flavor profile in this delicious stew. I would love to make this often.
I agree it’s a special combo!
A great soup to not only warm you up during the winter months but delicious as well. I too serve cilanto on the side when I’m cooking for others.
While we all like cilantro I now have a son-in-law who doesn’t!
i’ve never ever put peanut butter in a soup or stew and i have no idea why! i guess it just never occurred to me but i know i’d love it. great stew!
You know I think it’s my first time using peanut butter in soup too Grace! But not my last 🙂
This looks delicious I love soups every time !!
Happy new year !
Thanks Gloria. Happy New Year to you as well!
I make several variations on this African- inspired stew. They call it Dovi, and I especially like your version with kale! So flavorful and tasty!
I was so excited to see all those vegetables in here David!
I make a similar dish from an old recipe from the Great Dane restaurant in Madison called Great Dane Inner Warmth Peanut Stew. It is made with butternut squash, is thicker, and served over rice. I hope your readers give this dish a try. It is wonderfully comforting and so delicious whether you are vegetarian, vegan, or omnivore.
Oooh, I’ll have to consider serving over rice sometime Sam! Thanks!