Vegan Sweet Potato Peanut Stew
This vegan sweet potato peanut stew is ready in 35 minutes in one pot for a hearty, flavorful meal the whole family will love.
Why Make this Recipe
- 35-minute meal – have this hearty 1-pot stew on the table in about 35 minutes
- nutritious – this soup is made with everyday wholesome ingredients like chickpeas and sweet potato
- dietary restriction and allergy-friendly – this recipe is dairy-free, vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar-free and can be peanut-free or nut-free, if needed
What You’ll Need
- Soup veggie basics. You’ll need onion, celery, bell peppers, and garlic.
- Spices. The soup is seasoned with ground cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, coriander and ginger.
- Sweet potato. You’ll need about 3 cups diced, or one medium-ish sweet potato.
- Chickpeas. You’ll need a 19 oz can of chickpeas or 2 cups. If you only have a 14 oz can on hand, that’s fine, or you can open two 14 oz cans to reach 2 cups worth.
- Peanut butter. Peanut butter adds that traditional peanut soup flavor but you can sub it with almond butter or for a nut-free option, sunflower seed butter or even Wowbutter.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1. Start by sautéing the celery, onion and garlic in 2 tbsp of the broth. Cook them 5-6 minutes until they’re softened, then stir in the spices as well.
Step 2. Add the bell peppers, sweet potato, broth and tomatoes. Leave it uncovered and simmer lightly until the sweet potato is easily pierced with a fork. This should take 15-20 minutes.
Step 3. Finally, stir in the rest of the ingredients, turn of the heat and let it sit for a few minutes until everything is heated through.
Serve right away topped with fresh lemon or lime juice, crushed peanuts or cashews, and more fresh cilantro.
Tips and FAQs
- Dates. The chopped dates add a lovely sweetness to the stew but are an optional ingredient. They can be omitted or substituted raisins or 1-2 tbsp of maple syrup.
- Additional veggies. The veggies used are not set stone so feel free to play around with what you have available. Zucchini and carrot both work well as substitutes or additions.
- Make it a squash stew. No sweet potato available? Try this stew with butternut squash instead!
- Make it spicy. I like this stew with a bit of heat so I add red pepper flakes. You can use more or less to suit your spice preference. Jalapeno also makes a nice addition. If you’d like to try it, add 1 de-seeded minced jalapeno along with the onion and garlic.
How should I store this stew?
The stew will keep well in the fridge for up to 5 days or can be frozen in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months. Just make sure you let it cool before storing it.
Did you try this recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Scroll down to the comment section to leave a star rating and review.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Vegan Sweet Potato Peanut Stew
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 6
- Category: Soup
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Morrocan
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This sweet potato chickpea stew is hearty, nutritious and flavourful thanks to warming spices and healthy dose of peanut butter. It’s ready in under 40 minutes in 1-pot, making it perfect for a delicious weeknight meal.
Ingredients
- 1 small white onion, diced (1 heaping cup, 175 g)
- 3 ribs celery, chopped (1 heaping cup, 150 g)
- 1 green pepper, de-seeded and diced (1 cup, 150 g)
- 1 red pepper, de-seeded and diced (1 cup, 150 g)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1 tsp coriander
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, optional, for spice
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 3 cups, peeled and diced sweet potato (400 g)
- 1 28 oz can diced tomatoes with their juices
- 1 19 oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- 1/4 cup natural peanut butter (60 g)
- 1/4 cup finely chopped, pitted dates (50 g, sub raisins if needed)
- 1/2 cup lightly packed finely chopped cilantro (20 g)
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- salt and black or white pepper, to taste
Instructions
- In a soup pot over medium heat, cook the celery, onion and garlic in 2 tbsp of the vegetable broth for 5-6 minutes until soft and fragrant.
- Stir in the spices and cook for a couple more minutes.
- Add the bell peppers, broth, diced tomatoes and sweet potato and stir to combine. Simmer lightly, uncovered, until the sweet potato is tender, approximately 15-20 minutes.
- Stir in the chickpeas, dates or raisins, peanut butter, lemon and cilantro. Stir until the peanut butter is completely mixed in. Turn off the heat and let sit for a few minutes to allow everything to heat through.
- Serve right away topped with fresh cilantro and chopped peanuts or cashews, if desired.
- Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 3 months.
Notes
Peanut butter can be substituted with almond butter or for a nut-free stew, you can use sunflower seed butter or Wowbutter.
For spicy peanut stew, use the red pepper flakes and add an opional minced jalapeno with the onion.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/6th of recipe
- Calories: 236
- Fat: 6.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 36 g
- Fiber: 8.5 g
- Protein: 9 g
UPDATE NOTE: This recipe was originally published on January 5, 2017. It was updated on April 11, 2020 with new photos and text.
This really was wonderful. I made it exactly as written and it was perfect. Will make again! Thanks for the recipe!
You’re welcome! So glad you enjoyed it.
Made this last night, the variety of flavors work so well together. This was delicious and easy to make.
So so yummy and easy to make! 🙂
This was really good! Easy to make..served it over rice and it was delicious! The leftovers were even better.
So glad you enjoyed it, Karen!
We’ve made this many times and it’s one of our favorite recipes! We use almond butter and sometimes add extra veggies but otherwise follow the recipe exactly. Thank you!!
You’re welcome! Glad you enjoy it!
We’ve made this a few times now and love it. Sometimes I add other veggies like carrots and zucchini, or use almond butter. Sometimes I add more broth so it’s more of a soup…but it always comes out delicious! Thanks for this recipe!
Sounds great with those changes! Glad you’re enjoying the recipe. Thanks!
Hey Deryn. We made this for supper tonight, and like all your recipes it was so YUMMY!!! The recipe was easy to make and DELICIOUS!!! We did sub almond butter for the peanut butter. We will definitely make again as we ALWAYS have all the required ingredients in the house.
THANKS for all that you do??
Awesome! I sub almond butter for the peanut butter too..haha. Thanks for trying it and I appreciate your comment!!
I’ve made this recipe twice now and have shared it with some friends who are now eating whole foods plant based. It is a favorite of mine. It makes everything right with the world-for awhile at least! Thank you for a wonderful recipe!
Haha, well that is just amazing to hear! So glad you’ve been enjoying it.
Would there be a substitute for cilantro? Or would it be okay without it?
You can leave it out if you want. Thanks!
This looks really delicious. Any tip on another nut or seed to use instead of peanuts which goes with the taste of this stew? (I’m allergic to peanuts unfortunately)
You could try almond butter I guess? Let me know!