Bored of your regular cooking repertoire? Tired of cooking/eating the same thing all the time? Need ideas for a healthy, hearty vegetarian dinner that comes together in just minutes? Let’s take a little journey to Africa shall we?
Here is a stew that is so hearty and filling and stick-to-your-stomach good (and good for you, too!). In Africa, peanuts (or “g-nuts,” short for groundnuts) are featured in many meals. Today I have paired the nut with a sweet potato, carrot, onion, green bell pepper, and garbanzo bean stew. You can add whatever vegetables and beans and other goodies that you like–eggplant, peas, tomato, spinach, cauliflower, chilies, pineapple, tofu (or chicken or lamb).
I made some cornbread and sliced up cucumbers to go along with the stew, but it would also be lovely served over rice.
What I love about this stew is that it can be made for one or a few people or multiplied and made for a large crowd. This definitely makes my comfort food list…warm, mushy, hearty stew, and makes great leftovers, too.
Another dish that I like to make is this “G-nut Special Sauce and Sweet Potatoes” from Vegetarian Times Magazine. I have made this dish over and over and just love it!
Updated photo: 4/26/14
based on the recipe from blogger Field to Feastserves 42 Tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large leek, white part only, cleaned and sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon of fresh ginger, grated
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 medium sweet potatoes, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 cups veggie broth
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 15-oz can of garbanzo beans
1/2 cup peanut butter
cilantro or parsley, for garnish
2. Add the salt, vegetable broth, green pepper and garbanzo beans. Bring the stew to a boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 8-10 minutes, or until the sweet potato and carrot are soft. Mix in the peanut butter and cook for a final 5 minutes. If you want a thinner or thicker stew, you can add more peanut butter or, alternatively, more broth.
3. Serve the stew hot, with the toasted peanuts and cilantro or parsley as a garnish.
Figsinmybelly 
>I made a similar recipe I found in Food & Wine a few weeks ago. It's great! Love the flavor combo!
Interesting! It’s not the PRETTIEST (lol), but it definitely sounds tasty! I love sweet potato and peanuts so I’m saving this one to try…maybe tonight? I could use some comfort food! lol Thanks 🙂
Haha yes not the prettiest, but at least there’s a lot of warm winter oranges and greens in there. But hey, it tastes great and is good for you, too! I made the stew again recently with chard and black-eyed peas: https://figsinmybelly.com/2012/01/04/g-nut-stew-re-done-for-the-new-year/
Do let me know if you end up making it tonight! I would love to hear how it turns out for you!
Ahaha I have to confess, I subscribe to your email RSS and I guess there was a link to the older one in the email, so I did think this was the new post. Oy! I did in fact try this out tonight. Instead of writing you a huge comment here, I shared the recipe and some pics on my own blog (http://iliketocooksorryifyoudont.blogspot.com/2012/01/african-peanut-stew.html). Thanks so much for the idea! I LOVED it and it’s definitely getting added to my list of go-to’s.
PS The new pics on your more recent post definitely do it a much better justice!