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!
I am wondering if you may take an educated guess about what napa cabbage would taste like instead of the collards….and chiplotes in adobo sauce (maybe without some of the sauce) instead of the jalapenos. im thinking of serving it to a friend for our thanksgiving—but i no longer have greens or jalepenos and am done with the store. i also have smoked tabasco. or plain potatoes….thanks in advance. im not a great cook so like to follow recipes as close as i can but this looks delicious. we both love spicy food.
Hi Danielle! Napa cabbage would be lovely here instead of the leafy greens. If you want it to get to really soft and melt into the stew, I’d add the sliced cabbage after sauteing the onions and saute the cabbage for 3-4 minutes (instead of adding it at the end, like you do with the chopped kale).
I think I’d skip the chipotles in adobo since it will add a smoky flavor. That could be tasty, but since I haven’t tried it myself, I don’t want to say yes (because it could also be weird with peanut butter). If you want to add some heat, I would add ½ to 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes with the other spices and toast them in the oil.
Amazing Stew bursting with Flavor and Nutrition!!
My friend Ruchi made this for a tennis luncheon recently and everyone ranted about how tasty it was. We all asked for the recipe. I successfully made it last night and received more rave reviews. It is simple, straight forward, excellent notes and your instructions are perfectly laid out and understandable. Thank you for the recipe and thank Ruchi for sharing it with us.
It’s awesome to hear how well-loved this recipe is, and shoutout to Ruchi for sharing it! Thanks for taking the time to leave a review, we hope you’ll get the chance to try some of the other delicious recipes on the blog, Vicki! 🙂
I love this dish and made it for my best mate who is a meat eater. She likes vegetarian food but really dubious about vegan food. I was very determined to cook a vegan dish that she would like so have cooked this on two recent occasions that she has travelled to visit. She loved it so much that she cooked it for her family when she went home!!! They also loved it!
What a story, Wren! That’s so awesome to hear, thank you for sharing the recipe!
Absolutely delicious. Thank you Nisha and Rainbow Plant Life for this beautiful, wholesome dish. I used what I had on hand so the substitutions I made were regular potatoes instead of sweet potato, chickpeas and lentils instead of cannellini beans. I love the way you create the spices into the dish. I’ve also made you lentil curry and that is YUM.
We appreciate your feedback and support, Kitt. Thank you for leaving a review!
I have made this many times. It is one of our favourite meals. I usually make some changes, using only 2.5 cups of broth, adding 1/2 cup of dried red lentils instead of the white beans and leaving out the kale. I also add a variety of veggies such as white potatoes, squash, carrots and even some frozen peas.
We’re over the moon to hear you enjoy the recipe, Valarie. Thanks for your kind words and for sharing your preferred additions and substitutions!
Ah-mazing dish. 🙌 Your recipes consistently blow my taste buds into another realm.
Thank you for providing recipes online so I may enjoy food I did not grow up eating. My new comfort food recipes pretty much come from your kitchen. 💜
We’re so happy this recipe turned out well for you, Vicki! I’m excited to try this recipe myself tonight 🙂 Thanks for leaving a review!
Hello ! Is the nutritional information given for 100g or for the whole recipe result?
Hi Kimberley, the nutritional information given is for one serving, which is 1/6 of the total recipe yield. Hope that helped!
Nisha does it again! This is SO GOOD. It might just be my new favorite soup. I saved one of the jalapenos to chop up as a topping so I could adjust the spice level for different preferences. Next time I make this I’ll also do at least two cans of beans.
Jamie, Thank you for your thoughtful review! We’re so happy to hear that you enjoyed the stew.
I’ve just cooked it and it is delicious. Thank you so much for this lovely recipe
1st time with this one and it’s a winner! My daughter’s husband is from Karela India, and he really enjoyed this also. Excellent!! A favorite right next to the red curry lentil recipe! 😉 I added an extra can of beans.
Thanks for the fantastic review, Tiffany! I’m excited to try this one myself- I’ll have to add it to the list now!
Oh how I wish I wasnt allergic to peanuts 😭
Hi Demi, If you’re entirely nut-free, the best substitute would be sunflower seed butter (unsweetened variety), though of course it will change the taste somewhat. If you have a peanut allergy but can have other nuts, cashew butter or almond butter would work too (again, different flavor but same consistency) and unsweetened versions are easier to find than sunflower butter. 🙂
Hi! I found your recipe searching for vegetarian version for one of my favorite African stews. I’ll alter your recipe to make an Alkaline approved ingredients version. I’ll be using Walnut butter, Grapeseed oil, annatto oil, batata, burro bananas, scotch bonnet (kaani kaani) callaloo, mushroom powder, oyster/portobello mushrooms. I’ll let you know how it turned out. Bon appetite!
Hi Kimberly, we hope you enjoy the stew! We can’t wait to hear back!
I never leave reviews on online recipes, but this is my third time making this stew and it’s one of my all time favorite dinners (and definitely my favorite stew)! This is so comforting and warm and delicious, it makes me feel so cozy and happy inside. And it’s even better the second day, if there happens to be any leftovers. My family and I are not a fan of cooked kale, so I’ve been using a zucchini or two instead, and I add them midway through the simmering stage. Also, the jalapeños add just the right amount of flavor, they don’t make the stew too spicy. What’s even better about this recipe is how easy it is to make. 1 cutting board and 1 pot, and it takes only 20 minutes of prep work max. I LOVE THIS STEW!!!
Jacqueline, your kind words mean the world to us! Thank you for being a part of the RPL community.
Incredible dish! I doubled the recipe, used a whole (large) habanero pepper with seeds for extra heat, and subbed pumpkin pie spice instead of cinnamon & cloves. My daughter (a picky eater) loved it. She said “it’s a 10 out of 10, like something you’d get at a restaurant!”
Thanks for sharing that with us Terri, we’re delighted you enjoyed the recipe even with the modifications 🙂
I made this tonight for my boyfriend and I. We really enjoyed it! I made a few modifications to it, such as using red lentils in place of the sweet potato and used collared greens instead of kale. I’d said I was going to make it for the past few nights, but had been putting it off because I was a bit skeptical about it, but ended up really enjoying it. Since it’s just my love and I we’ll have plenty of leftovers for the next few nights. Thank you for sharing the great recipe!
We’re so happy to hear you finally got a chance to make the recipe and found it delicious, Malaya! Those words are music to our ears 🙂 Thank you for the lovely review!
REALLY good. I’ll be making this again for sure. I swapped the kale for chard and doubled the amount to get some more greens in, plus I decided to be brave and go for a deseeded scotch bonnet. I really recommend doing that; the flavour is oustanding and yes it is quite hot but for somebody who enjoys their Indian food, totally bearable; I might even leave the seeds in next time!
Thank you for your lovely comment, Jack! It makes us happy to know that you enjoyed the stew.
My husband and I enjoyed this very much last night! Very quick and easy and tasty. Thank you. I’ve made your bolognaise many times and we love it.
Thank you for your lovely comment, Hilary! It makes us happy to know that you two enjoyed the recipe.
I’ve made made African peanut stew before with a different recipe, and enjoyed that one more unfortunately. I would exclude the cloves and cinnamon if I was going to try this again, it was too overpowering. I might reconsider the lemon too to make it less tangy.
Sorry to hear you weren’t a fan of the recipe, Justin. We’re grateful for your feedback nonetheless.
This was so good!! I will definitely be making this again, my whole family loved it!
Hi Alex, Thank you so much for such a fantastic review! Appreciate you taking the time!
Lovely stew but it’s not remotely close to what domoda is – traditional domoda has no ginger, nor any of the spices listed in this recipe.