If you love hearty yet nourishing comfort-food, say hello to this Gambian Peanut Stew!
This nourishing one-pot stew is packed with aromatics and spices, will keep you satiated for hours, and pulls off one of my favorite culinary magic tricks: it tastes indulgent while being made with wholesome ingredients (plus vegan, gluten-free, and soy-free!). This is flavor-rich comfort food at its absolute finest. 😍
Please note: I originally titled this recipe Vegan West African Peanut Stew, but after doing more research on the various differences across West African peanut stews, I came to identify my particular recipe as being most influenced by Gambian Peanut Stew, aka domoda.
What’s a West African Peanut Stew?
Peanut stews are common in West African countries, including Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana, and The Gambia, with variations abounding throughout the region and across ethnic groups. They are often referred to as “groundnut” stews or soups, as “groundnut” is the more traditional term for peanut in this region.
This recipe most closely resembles the national dish of The Gambia, a peanut stew called domoda. You’ll find both vegetarian and meat versions, though the vegetarian version is quite common because meat can be expensive.
It usually contains roasted peanuts crushed or blended into a paste, tomatoes and/or tomato sauce, chili peppers, and a vegetable such as sweet potatoes, carrots, or pumpkin.
This recipe uses unsweetened, natural peanut butter for a shortcut, and while it might sound odd at first glance to add peanut butter to a stew, it blends effortlessly and lends a creamy, nutty richness you’ll adore.
Want to learn more about groundnut soups from West Africa? Check out this post from Gwafu Vegan or read more here.
Ingredients
- Peanut butter. Be sure to use a variety with no added sugar. The best options are made with just peanuts and salt.
- White beans. Many Westernized vegetarian versions of this recipe do not contain a dedicated protein source. I added white beans in my take on this dish—they add extra protein and fiber, as well as extra creaminess!
- Aromatics. Starting this recipe with sautéing aromatics (onions, garlic, ginger, and jalapeño peppers) helps build layers of flavors. Often, West African peanut stews are made with habanero or Scotch bonnet peppers, but I opted for jalapeño peppers because they’re more widely available.
- Sweet potatoes. The finely diced sweet potatoes are key in this dish, as they help balance the spices and acidity. And the longer you cook the stew, the more the sweet potatoes will fall apart, virtually melting into the stew so you get a luscious, velvety texture.
- Kale. For added nutrition! Just toss it in towards the end of cooking and let it wilt. It’s a far easier way to get in your greens than chomping on a kale salad!
Substitutes + Swaps
- Peanut Butter: Peanut allergy? Try cashew butter, almond butter, or sunflower seed butter for a nut-free option (use an unsweetened variety like so). To make this more traditionally, buy whole raw peanuts and roast them yourself, then blend into a creamy paste with water (check out the instructions in this recipe).
- Want to make it spicy? Feel free to go traditional and use Scotch bonnet or habanero pepper. Or, for just a little more heat, replace the jalapeño with a serrano pepper.
- Not a kale fan? Try another green, like thinly sliced collard greens, or Swiss chard. I find spinach wilts a bit too much for my preference, but if you like it, go for it!
Step-by-step instructions
- Heat up the coconut oil in a Dutch oven or deep sauté pan.
Saute the diced onions in coconut oil until just starting to brown.
- Add the garlic, ginger, and jalapeños and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add in the tomato paste, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, salt, and pepper.
- Incorporate the tomato paste and spices into the onions and stir frequently for 2 minutes.
- Deglaze the pan with the vegetable broth. Add the white beans, crushed tomatoes, thyme, sweet potatoes, and peanut butter.
- Bring the stew to a boil, then reduce the heat to maintain a rapid simmer for 20-25 minutes until sweet potatoes are tender.
- Add the kale and cook for 3-5 minutes until wilted.
- Finish the stew with cilantro and lemon juice and season to taste.
Frequently Asked Questions
This stew is hearty enough on its own, but to stretch out your meal (and budget) and make it heartier, serve it over a grain like white rice, brown rice, millet, quinoa, or any favorite grain of yours. If you have access to fonio (a type of millet from West Africa), give that a try!
I actually have a version of this recipe in my cookbook, The Vegan Instant Pot Cookbook (and it’s a reader favorite!).
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5-6 days. Store the stew without any rice/grains as the rice tends to harden. The stew also freezes well—you can freeze it for 3 to 4 months. Defrost in the fridge before warming up for the best texture.
I prefer to reheat most leftovers on the stove in a saucepan, but the microwave also works fine.
More nourishing vegan stews
- Vegan Tagine with Chickpeas
- Creamy Mushroom and Black Beluga Lentil Stew
- Tuscan Stewed Beans
- Braised Indian Chickpea Stew
If you cozy up with a bowl of this Gambian Peanut Stew, I’d love to hear about it 😊 Leave a rating and review below and let me know what you think!
Introducing
Big Vegan Flavor
Techniques and 150 recipes to master vegan cooking.
Vegan Gambian Peanut Stew (Domoda)
Ingredients
- 1 ½ tablespoons unrefined coconut oil (use refined for a neutral flavor)
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 6 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
- 1-2 jalapeño peppers, diced (see Note 1)
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
- Freshly cracked black pepper to taste
- 4 cups (945 mL) low-sodium vegetable broth
- 1 small handful of fresh thyme sprigs (see Note 2)
- 1 pound (454g) sweet potatoes, peeled and finely diced (see Note 3)
- ½ cup (128g) creamy peanut butter (no sugar added)
- 1 (15-ounce/425g) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 (28-ounce/800g) can crushed tomatoes
- 5 cups (90-100g) chopped kale
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice (or lime juice)
- ½ cup (8g) cilantro leaves and tender stems, chopped
For serving (optional)
- white rice, brown rice, millet, quinoa, or fonio
Instructions
- Heat a large, deep sauté pan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the coconut oil, and once it's shimmering, add the onions with a pinch of salt. Cook until the onions are just starting to brown around the edges, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic, ginger, and jalapeño peppers. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent burning.
- Add in the tomato paste, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, and a generous amount of freshly cracked black pepper. Stir frequently and vigorously for 2 minutes, incorporating the tomato paste and spices into the onions. Add a few splashes of water to prevent the spices from drying out or burning.
- Pour in the vegetable broth, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Add the thyme sprigs, sweet potatoes, peanut butter, drained and rinsed white beans, and crushed tomatoes. Stir well to combine.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to low or medium-low to maintain a rapid simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are soft and tender, stirring occasionally.
- Optional step: The stew should be quite thick by now, but if you want it to be even thicker and creamier, run an immersion blender through half of the stew (don’t blend it all – you want to retain some texture).
- Add the chopped kale and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes, or until wilted. If desired, use a fork to smash the sweet potatoes to further thicken the stew.
- Stir in the lemon or lime juice and cilantro. Season to taste, adding more salt as needed. Serve plain, or on top your favorite grain.
Video
Notes
- If you’re very sensitive to spicy food, use just 1 jalapeño pepper and remove the seeds and membranes, where most of the heat lives. But if you can handle the heat, leave the seeds in. Really love spicy food? Feel free to use a habanero or Scotch bonnet pepper (the seeds are very spicy so I recommend removing them).
- You can substitute fresh thyme with 1 teaspoon dried thyme. Just add it to the Spice Blend.
- To ensure the sweet potatoes cook through in the time allotted, be sure to finely dice them. If not finely diced, it will take longer for the stew to cook.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Love this? Leave a rating below!
Wow, it tasted amazing and was so easy to cook.
This dish is going to make it into the rotation. So good, and my wife was really impressed. I used an habanero and I would say you have to use it. Eat smaller bites if you are sensitive. I made it with rice and Malabar paratha. It was great!
I can not shop at ALDI for moral reasons as I find Aldi part of the problem that is ruining our planet. Is it possible to make this recipe with organic and fair vegetables from a local farmers market or at least from an organic supermarket?
I’m not a vegan, but this recipe makes me want to be! I made this beautiful creation to take to a pizza party for relatives who are vegan. All the non-vegans nearly finished the stew before the vegans got there! I was expecting to have at least half left over, but as it turned out, I had none! No worries. I had more ingredients where that came from. The blend of flavors is just amazing, and is actually better the next day, if you have any left, which I did, the second time around. Mwah! My compliments to the artist who created this!
I don’t have kale but would
Spinach work instead?
Thanks for sharing this recipe. Turned out really good.
Soooo good!
Absolutely delicious and my meat loving husband agreed! Win-win! I’m so glad I happened to see this recipe.
I finally made this tonight and everyone was singing your praises after the first spoonful! Your banana bread is in the oven now and I’m sure it’ll be devoured quickly. Thank you!
Aww thank you Mia! So awesome to hear that you loved this Gambian Peanut Stew and hope you also enjoyed the banana bread!
I didn’t even get to have any bread! Serves 10 turned into served 3 hahaha. One person said he could just eat that three times a day. Next time I’m making two loaves but it smelled amazing!
I made it today! A bit labor intensive getting everything together, but we’ll worth it. Thought I had Cannoli Beans, but didn’t, so I used Chick Peas. It was awesome with them. It makes quite a bit. Invited friends & will see……
This turned out delicious! I added a bit more peanut butter (go with chunky!) and used dried habaneros from my garden. Be sure to dice the sweet potato finer than you think, I did half inch cubes and it took a long time. But it was worth the wait. This is a hearty meal. Better than a restaurant!
Absolutely loved this dish. Even my very picky meat-eating family members went for seconds.
This is the best new dish I have tried in a long time. Man oh man is it good, and I am really enjoying the leftovers cold as well!
Really delicious and an easy weeknight dinner! I upped the spices a little bit.
This was fabulous! Can you please tell me how many calories this is?
That’s exactly the question I came on here to ask. We had it tonight and loved it!! But we are counting calories and would like to know a ballpark number. I was guessing around 500 with the rice.
I absolutely loved this recipe! My covid isolation has inspired me to become a cook. The only thing about this recipe was that it yielded much more than I anticipated, in fact, I had to switch to a larger pot after adding the sweet potatoes. But I was able to share it with friends and still have some to freeze!
I have just downloaded the Instant Pot Vegan cookbook so I’m really looking forward to cooking more delicious meals. So glad to have found Nisha.
I really enjoyed this, thanks for sharing. I made exactly as written except I added some berbere into the mix. A lot of nice, warm-spice flavor and ate very hearty. Great consistency (even though I didn’t use the immersion blender). Love all the nutritious components. Served over rice.
This has moved into the top five dinners I make in my house! We still have leftovers three days later and my wife is still asking for me to make another pot of it!! You can taste every little spice and vegetable 10/10
Amazing!! We aren’t vegan but we do a lot of meatless meals. This was so rich and filling and the sweety salty flavor with the PB. Reminded me of a spruced up Tested from when we were in Ghana. Yum!!! BTW I forgot to add the kale, hubby and kids ate without the kale and I had it with. Delicious either way (in my opinion), but they definitely preferred it without the kale.
This is an excellent recipe! Came out just great. We didn’t use any jalapeño peppers and used sriracha to allow everyone to adjust the heat level they wanted. Perhaps straight up sambal olek could have been used for pure heat but the sriracha added a bit of its own flavor/character to the dish, which was good. This recipe makes A LOT! We used our 7qt dutch oven pot and it filled it up a little more than 1/2 way. We had this with jasmine rice and it was excellent… now with plenty of left overs, we’ll be having this for a few days to come easy.