West African Peanut Stew Recipe

by Joey

Here’s a delicious meal that is vegan, gluten-free, low-cost, easy and flexible.

It’s a fan favourite in our Community Lunch program, and now you can make it at home!

This dish is a source of protein, fiber, iron, calcium, potassium, manganese, phosphorus, magnesium, selenium, B vitamins, Vitamins A, E, C, K, healthy fats and omega-3 fatty acids.

All you need to get started is peanut butter, canned tomato, and some veggies. At the end of this recipe you’ll find tips on how to adjust for ingredients you prefer or have on hand. Enjoy!

Makes: 6 servings

Prep time: 20 min

Cook time: 30 min

Ingredients:

· 1.5 L vegetable stock (if you would like to learn how to make your own low-cost & waste free vegetable stock we have a recipe here)

· 2 tbsp vegetable oil

· 1 onion

· 1 inch piece of ginger

· 3 garlic cloves

· 1 large yam

· 2 small-medium potato

· 1-400 ml canned tomato

· 1 can chickpea

· 1 bell pepper

· 3 leaves kale or 1/3 bunch spinach

Seasoning:

· ¾ cup peanut butter (no added sugar)

· 1/8 tsp chili powder

· 1/8 tsp cayenne

· 1 ½ tsp lemon juice

· Salt & pepper

Extremely optional toppings:

· Sprinkle of chopped peanuts

· Few sprigs of chopped herb (cilantro, parsley, or green onion)

Instructions:

1. Begin warming up 1.5 L vegetable stock or water on the stove or microwave in a small pot or microwave-safe container. Heat until it starts steaming / simmering.

2. Peel onion, garlic, yam. Cut onion, yam, potato and bell pepper into ~2 cm bite sized cubes. Finely chop the ginger and garlic. Roughly chop kale/spinach.

3. In a large soup pot, heat vegetable oil on medium heat. Sautee and stir onion for 5 minutes, until they are translucent.

4. Add garlic, ginger, yam and stir for another minute.

5. Add canned tomato with juices. Simmer on medium-low heat for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

6. Drain and rinse can of chickpeas. Add chickpeas, chili powder and cayenne to the pot. Stir.

7. Grab a large metal bowl or container and scoop in one ladle of vegetable stock. If it’s really hot, let it cool for a couple minutes.

8. Add remaining vegetable stock to the soup pot. Cover pot and turn on high heat. When it bubbles, turn to medium heat and simmer for ~15 min, until yam/potato is fork tender.

9. Take your peanut butter and add ¾ cup to the 1 ladle of vegetable stock. Whisk together until smooth. Mixing the peanut butter with a little stock will be much easier than mixing everything in the large pot.

10. Once yam is almost fork tender, stir peanut butter mixture and bell pepper into soup pot and cook for 3-5 minutes.

11. Turn off heat and stir in spinach/kale and lemon juice.

12. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve and top with herbs and chopped peanuts.

How to adjust this recipe:

· If you don’t have vegetable stock you can use water, but add some extra seasonings (bay leaves, more garlic & onion).

· You can replace any of the veggies (broccoli or green beans would be tasty)

· Replace the chickpeas with any kind of bean, lentil, split pea or grain

· I like using canned diced tomato, but you can use crushed, paste, sauce, whatever you have.

· Replace lemon juice with apple cider vinegar, lime juice or any light acid

· Add leftover rice or shredded chicken to make it heartier.

· The more peanut butter you use, the thicker your stew will be.