Just looking at this photo is making me want to eat this meal again. 🙂 West African peanut stew is a unique and delicious stew dish. It’s a beautiful balance of savory, nutty, slightly sweet, and spicy with a thick, silky texture. The peanut base makes it rich and hearty, while the tomatoes and spices add brightness and warmth.
You can make this stew vegetarian and it is a fantastic recipe for that. You can also include chicken as I did. I also included kale (cabbage is more traditional but I love kale), chickpeas, and sweet potatoes. You could also use carrots or bell pepper here too.
The warmth and flavor of this stew comes from the aromatic ginger, garlic, chili and onion mix as well as cumin. You can add chopped cilantro and lime juice when serving for additional flavor and brightness. Use natural peanut butter here and don’t skip the chopped peanuts on top. I served with warm rice and garlic naan on the side.
If you don’t think this West African peanut stew recipe is for you, but you’d like some other stew/soup recipes check out my full list of soups here. If you’d like more info about the origins of this stew you can read about it here.
West African Peanut Stew
Ingredients
- 3 boneless skinless chicken breast or use 6 thighs or make without meat
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion diced
- 1 sweet potato cut into 1/2 inch cubes
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 4 inch piece fresh ginger peeled and minced
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 jalapeno or 1/2 scotch bonnet pepper you can make this as spicy or not as you like
- 4 cups kale chopped or use sliced cabbage
- 2/3 cup roasted peanuts roughly chopped plus more for serving
- 1/2 cup natural creamy peanut butter
- 1 can chickpeas drained
- 3 cups chicken broth more as needed
- chopped cilantro and peanuts for serving
- lime wedges if desired for serving
- rice for serving
Instructions
- Add the oil to a large stock pot over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, hot pepper, sweet potato and ginger and cook, stirring occasionally until they are browning, about 6-8 minutes. Add the chicken and season with salt and pepper. Continue to cook and stir once in a while until the chicken has also started to brown a bit.
- Add in the cumin, crushed tomatoes, chickpeas, peanut butter, peanuts, and kale, along with the stock, and if needed a little water. This stew will be relatively thick when you serve it but it needs to simmer for 30 minutes or so, so add a little water if needed to prevent the bottom scorching.
- Simmer on low heat for 30 minutes, stirring now and then and checking the thickness of the broth. Taste and season with more salt and pepper or cumin as needed.
- When ready to serve, dish the stew up over rice and top with extra chopped peanuts and cilantro as well as a squeeze of lime juice if you like.