This warming vegan African peanut stew with butter beans, green beans and sweet potato is perfect if you're looking for healthy spicy comfort food. It's packed with vegetables and makes a delicious one pot meal, although it's delicious with rice too!
This African peanut stew is in no way an authentic recreation of the recipe. It's based on meals I've eaten in the past and inspired also by pictures of African peanut stew that I've seen in magazines and online over the years. However, although it may not be authentic, it is totally delicious and definitely worth making.
It's got that gorgeous spicy tomato and peanut sauce as the base. It you love nutty foods then you're going to fall in love! There's also garlic, ginger and spices as well as chilli, chilli powder and chilli peppers. An authentic African peanut stew would have scotch bonnet peppers in it but I've made do with supermarket chilli peppers. This time.
Of course, if you don't like your food to be too spicy then you can cut down on the chilli. Use one chilli pepper or use less chilli powder. Equally, if you like your comfort food meals to be really fiery, add extra chillies!
Ingredient notes for Vegan African peanut stew
Do also check out the full recipe card further down the page as that includes quantities too. This recipe is easy to adapt and here are the ingredients that I've used:
- Cooking oil - I used vegetable oil but you could use another neutral oil or coconut oil instead.
- Onion - Use red or brown onions.
- Chilli peppers - Scotch bonnet peppers would be more traditional than the chilli peppers I've used here but feel free to use whatever chilli peppers you have. Remove the seeds or keep them in. It depends on how spicy you want it
- Garlic - Feel free to replace the fresh garlic with a paste or puree. You could even use garlic powder.
- Root ginger - As with the garlic, you can replace the fresh ginger with a paste or puree.
- Spices - I use a mixture of cumin, smoked paprika and chilli powder
- Tinned tomatoes - If you havent got tinned tomatoes you can replace them with freshly chopped tomatoes.
- Peanut butter - Feel free to use smooth or crunchy. I use crunchy but if you don't like getting little bits of nut in your stew and just want the peanut flavour, you might prefer to use smooth.
- Stock - I used vegetable tomato stock made up from a stock cube. Plain vegetable stock is fine though.
- Sweet potato
- Green beans - I like to add some green vegetables to this stew. You can replace them with a different vegetable though.
- Butter beans - Butter beans are brilliant at soaking up the flavours in this stew. You can replace them with cannellini beans though, or in fact any beans.
How to make vegan African peanut stew
This African inspired peanut stew is so easy to make in one pot. First heat a little oil in a saucepan and then cook the onions and diced chilli pepper until softened. This'll take about 5 minutes.
Then add the ginger and garlic. Stir them in, followed by the spices. After a couple of minutes, add the tomatoes, stock and peanut butter. As you stir, the peanut butter will dissolve into the sauce and you'll have a thick red sauce.
Add the sweet potato, butter beans and green beans, plus any other vegetables you feel like adding. The put the lid on and let it simmer for about 20 minutes or at least until the sweet potato is cooked through.
I usually serve it with brown rice, topped with some fresh herbs such as coriander and a few peanuts.
Can you adapt the recipe?
Yes of course! This recipe is very easy to adapt. You can switch the vegetables to other vegetables. For example you can use squash or root vegetables instead of the sweet potato. You can also add any other vegetables that you want to use up.
Feel free to add more or less chilli too. You can easily make it more or less spicy.
Although this is a peanut stew, I don't see why it wouldn't work with a different nut butter or even tahini as a replacement.
What can you serve African peanut stew with?
I've served it with brown rice but you could serve it with any rice. This lime and coriander rice would work well for example. Instead of rice you could serve with a different grain such as bulgur wheat, quinoa or couscous.
You could also serve it with fresh bread. It would go with bread rolls, chapati or naan.
Storing and reheating the leftovers
Any leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to three days in an airtight container. You can also freeze it for up to three months. Defrost in the fridge overnight and then reheat.
You can reheat in the oven, the microwave or in a saucepan.
My new serving pots
By the way, if you like the yellow serving bowl you can see in some of these images, I got it from Hokan. It can be used in the oven and microwave, and can also be used to store food in the fridge or freezer.
Recipe
Vegan African Peanut Stew with Butter Beans
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil
- 1 onion finely diced
- 2 chilli peppers diced (Use scotch bonnet if you have them)
- 4 garlic cloves crushed
- 15 g root ginger grated
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon chilli powder
- 400 g tinned tomatoes
- 70 g peanut butter Use smooth or crunchy
- 200 ml stock I used vegetable tomato stock
- 340 g sweet potato peeled and diced
- 80 g green beans
- 125 g butter beans I used tinned butter beans
Instructions
- Heat some oil in a large saucepan and add the onions and chilli pepper. Cook down for about 5 minutes until softened.
- Add the ginger and garlic. Cook for a couple of minutes and then stir in the spices.
- Add the tinned tomatoes, stock and peanut butter. Stir till the peanut butter has dissolved into the sauce and you have a thick red sauce.
- Add the sweet potato, green beans and butter beans. Stir. Bring to the boil then cover and lower the heat to a simmer. Simmer for about 20 minutes until the sweet potato is cooked through.
- I like to serve it with brown rice and top with a little fresh coriander and some peanuts.
Notes
Nutrition
More recipes you might like
If you like this vegan sweet potato and peanut stew, here are some more vegan recipes you might like:
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Lily Jackson
Yum! This meal is really tasty. We loved the peanut butter in the sauce. We ate it with mashed potato instead of rice and it was a real hit. The leftovers were very easy to reheat too.