African Peanut Sweet Potato Stew

10 Servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 1 minute
Total Time 1 hour 6 minutes

African Peanut Sweet Potato Stew is a creamy combination of spicy, sweet, and salty flavors with cinnamon, cumin, ginger, and peanut butter.

Peanuts and sweet potatoes are classic and filling ingredients frequently combined in delicious West African meals, just like our Baked African Sweet Potato Chicken. Adding them into a delicious Soup Recipe makes a wonderfully warming and comforting meal. 

African Peanut Sweet Potato Stew in bowl over rice with cilantro & peanut garnish

It’s hard to think of anything more hearty and soothing to enjoy on a cold night than a bowl of stew. This soul-soothing African Peanut Stew is sure to hit the spot with its combination of peanut butter, sweet potatoes, garbanzo beans, and spices. It’s a meatless, one-pot meal that everyone is sure to love!

If you’ve never tried a recipe that uses sweet potatoes and peanut butter, then you are in for a delight. The surprising pairing of the naturally sweet and salty flavors makes an unbelievably tasty and comforting dish.

Thanks to the garbanzo beans and potatoes, not only does this stew have an awesome flavor, but it’s also wonderfully satisfying. You don’t have to worry about making a bunch of extra side dishes to fill you up. However, if you’re serving a big group and want to stretch the recipe, you can serve the stew over bowls of rice. Any cooked rice, including Brown Rice, black rice, or Wild Rice would taste fantastic with one-pot African Peanut Stew. 

African Peanut Sweet Potato Stew in dutch oven with sweet potatoes being added

MORE HEARTY STEW RECIPES

KEY INGREDIENTS IN AFRICAN PEANUT SWEET POTATO STEW

  • Peanut butter: The peanut butter easily melts into the broth to add rich peanut flavor to the entire dish. We use chunky peanut butter to add extra texture to the recipe ingredients. However, if you don’t have crunchy, you can also use creamy peanut butter. 
  • Sweet potatoes: Sweet potatoes make a flavorful and filling base for the rest of the recipe ingredients. They easily cook to a nice tender texture and soak up the flavors around them while still keeping their own unique profile. 
  • Garbanzo beans: Garbanzo beans, or chickpeas, are great to use in this recipe as a source of protein. This is a meatless stew, so it’s important to include the garbanzo beans to make sure it’s still filling and packed with important nutrients and protein. 
  • Spices: All the ingredients are given an authentic flavor with a few delicious spices. Ginger, cumin, cinnamon, and paprika all come together to make a perfectly seasoned and slightly spicy dish. 
African Peanut Sweet Potato Stew in dutch oven with wooden spoon

COOKING TIPS FOR AFRICAN PEANUT SWEET POTATO STEW

  • Combine: Start by scrubbing and cubing the sweet potatoes so that they’re ready for the recipe. Add the vegetable broth, diced tomatoes, crunchy peanut butter, minced garlic cloves, ginger, cumin, salt, cinnamon, paprika, sweet potato cubes, and garbanzo beans to a large pot or dutch oven.
  • Cook: Stir together the broth mixture, and turn the stovetop to medium heat. Once the stew is boiling, turn the stove to medium-low and continue simmering for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes add in the fresh bunch kale, and continue simmering for another 30 minutes until the stew is thickened. 
  • Finish: Add in the fresh cilantro, stir, and heat for 1 minute. Then ladle the stew into bowls and top with additional cilantro and peanuts to serve. 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What other vegetables can I add to this African Peanut Stew?

You can chop up some extra vegetables to add to the stew, like collard greens, carrots, and zucchini. For some peppers, slice bell peppers or jalapeno peppers into 1-inch strips and stir them into the One-Pot African Peanut Stew. 

Can I add meat to this stew recipe?

If you don’t care about keeping the recipe vegetarian, you can add in cooked meat at the same time you add the kale. Slice cooked chicken, turkey, or pork into 1-inch pieces and mix them into the dish. 

Can you make African Peanut Stew with coconut milk?

For some rich, creamy, coconut flavor, you can mix a cup of creamy coconut milk or coconut cream with the broth. 

What other flavorings can be used in this recipe?

There are lots of ways you can experiment with the flavors in this recipe. Try adding spices like red chili flakes, chili powder, onion powder, ground coriander, nutmeg, and parsley. You could also add sauces like hot sauce or adobo sauce. For a slight citrus flavor squeeze lime juice out of lime wedges over the top of each bowl. 

African Peanut Sweet Potato Stew in bowl over rice with cilantro & peanut garnish

MORE COMFORT FOOD DISHES

HOW TO STORE AFRICAN PEANUT SWEET POTATO STEW

  • Serve: Don’t leave Sweet Potato Peanut Stew at room temperature for more than 2 hours. If you’re hoping to keep the dish out during a potluck or another occasion and want to keep it out longer, you can transfer the stew to a crockpot and keep it simmering over low heat. 
  • Store: Let the stew cool before you transfer it to an airtight container to store in the fridge for 3-4 days. 
  • Freeze: You can also carefully seal and freeze the dish for 6 months. 
African Peanut Sweet Potato Stew in bowl over rice with cilantro & peanut garnish

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African Peanut Sweet Potato Stew

African Peanut Sweet Potato Stew is a creamy combination of spicy, sweet, and salty flavors with cinnamon, cumin, ginger, and peanut butter.
Yield 10 Servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 1 minute
Total Time 1 hour 6 minutes
Course Dinner
Cuisine African
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

  • 3 cups vegetable broth
  • 28 ounces diced tomatoes , undrained
  • 2/3 cup chunky peanut butter
  • 4 garlic cloves , halved
  • 1 tablespoon ginger , minced
  • 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  • 2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon paprika
  • 3 pounds sweet potatoes , peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
  • 15 ounces garbanzo beans , rinsed and drained
  • 8 cups kale , removed from stems and chopped
  • 1 bunch cilantro , chopped
  • 1/2 cup salted peanuts , chopped

Instructions

  • To a large pot add the broth, diced tomatoes, peanut butter, garlic, ginger, cumin, salt, cinnamon, paprika, sweet potatoes, and garbanzo beans and bring to a boil.
  • Simmer for 30 minutes on medium-low then add in the kale and simmer for an additional 30 minutes until thickened.
  • Stir in half the cilantro and let heat through for 1 minute.
  • Serve topped with additional cilantro and chopped peanuts.

Nutrition

Calories: 379kcal | Carbohydrates: 53g | Protein: 15g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Sodium: 966mg | Potassium: 1189mg | Fiber: 10g | Sugar: 12g | Vitamin A: 25026IU | Vitamin C: 76mg | Calcium: 192mg | Iron: 5mg
Keyword: African Peanut Sweet Potato Stew
African Peanut Sweet Potato Stew Collage

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. Not a vegetarian but I love to eat wholesome delish food. I’ve made this several time camping and it hits the spot! Plus no meat to worry about spoiling! We all love this satisfying, flavorful meal!