This hearty vegan stew is a satisfying meal in a bowl…with lentils and sweet potatoes in a creamy, thick tomato and peanut butter sauce that’s filled with cozy spices and veggies. Vegan Peanut Stew is just the healthy comfort food you want for an easy dinner….Vegetable Stew is perfect for chilly nights!
When the temperatures start dipping, I’m all in on a delicious bowl of stew…and I prefer the meatless varieties like this peanut stew, my classic vegan no beef stew, or delicious spiced chickpea stew. All plant-based winners when you’re looking for a hearty and satisfying dinner in a bowl.
- Cool nights call for hearty stew with lentils
- Easy one pot meal
- Simple ingredients
- Flavorful aromatics and cozy spices
- Warm and cozy on a chilly winter night
- Delicious plant-based dinner that even meat eaters will adore.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Sweet potato: cubed winter squash like butternut or acorn would be a good swap.
- Peanut butter: Use creamy or chunky…look for a brand that has just one ingredient: peanuts! For peanut allergies, substitute with almond butter or sun butter.
- Ginger: fresh ginger will add the best flavor, and you can find jarred minced ginger or frozen crushed ginger cubes most grocery stores.
- Garlic: again, fresh garlic adds wonderful flavor to this stew, and frozen crushed garlic is easy to find. Garlic powder, not garlic salt can be used in a pinch.
- Onion: use a sweet vidalia onion, yellow onion or red onion. Substitute with leeks.
- Crushed tomatoes: substitute with diced tomatoes.
- Kale: substitute with another hearty leafy green like collards, elephant kale or chard.
- Parsnips: substitute with turnips, rutabaga or carrots.
- Cauliflower: use fresh or frozen cauliflower florets. Substitute with broccoli or brussels sprouts.
- Lentils: brown or green lentils work best in this recipe. Red lentils will fall apart and thicken up the stew and could be used as well.
- Veggie broth: Use my easy homemade vegetable broth recipe or be sure to read the label well in store bought…they often contain processed oils and an abundance of sodium.
How to make it
Before you begin, prep all your ingredients. It will be easier to have them ready by the stove to add when needed to the dutch oven.
- Dice onion
- Scrub sweet potato and cut into small dice
- Peel and cut parsnips into small dice
- Trim cauliflower into florets
- Grate ginger and roughly chop garlic
- Rinse and drain lentils
- Stack kale and thinly slice.
Sweat onions over medium heat, in water or olive oil, until translucent. Then add ginger, garlic, cumin, cinnamon, crushed red pepper and salt.
Continue to saute, adding another tablespoon of liquid to keep the pan from becoming dry, for 1 minute, stirring constantly, until fragrant.
Stir in sweet potatoes, parsnips, cauliflower and lentils until thoroughly coated in spice mixture.
Mix in crushed tomatoes.
Pour in veggie broth and stir well. Bring to a boil and then turn down to simmer for 20 minutes.
Add kale to the pot and stir well.
Cook for an additional 10 minutes, for the veggies to become tender and the kale to fully wilt.
Stir in peanut butter, maple syrup and lemon juice.
Optional: If stew is thinner than you like, puree about ¼ of the stew to create a thick and creamy base. You can use an immersion blender or ladle some into a regular blender and then back into the dutch oven.
Give the stew a good stir so that it is uniform in texture. Garnish with fresh cilantro or parsley, chopped peanuts and more crushed pepper to taste.
Debra’s Pro Tips
- Make yourself some easy vegan dinner rolls, to sop up all the delicious sauce.
- Stir occasionally as stew cooks, to prevent anything from sticking to the bottom of pot.
- This vegan stew gets better as it sits…use that to your advantage and meal prep a pot in advance…simply reheat on the stove top until heated through.
- If stew is thicker than you like, mix in ¼ cup additional vegetable broth.
Serving and Storage
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge for a week, or freezer for 3 months.
- Use freezer safe zip top bags for 1-2 serving storage and lay flat in the freezer until frozen solid. If freezing in glass mason jars, leave a couple inches room on the top for stew to expand.
- Reheat on the stovetop over medium-low heat until heated through, mixing in a couple tablespoons water if needed.
- Pour boiling water into your thermos to heat it up. Then pour out the water and add hot stew to take it to go.
- Serve over dairy-free mashed potatoes, or a simple cauliflower rice dish.
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📖 Recipe
Hearty Vegan Stew with Peanut Butter and Lentils
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 sweet onion diced
- 1 tablespoon grated ginger about 1" piece fresh ginger
- 4 cloves garlic roughly chopped, about 2 teaspoons
- 2 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
- ½ tsp coarse sea salt
- 1 lb. sweet potatoes scrubbed, not peeled, and diced small
- ½ lb. parsnips
- ¼ head cauliflower cut into florets, about 2 cups
- ½ cup green or brown lentils rinsed and drained
- 1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 2 cups kale chopped into small pieces
- 2 teaspoon maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- ½ cup peanut butter
Instructions
- Prepare veggies: dice onion, scrub (not necessary to peel) sweet potatoes and cut into small dice, peel parsnips and dice, cut cauliflower into florets. Peel garlic cloves and roughly chop, grate ginger. Rinse and drain lentils. Stack kale leaves and slice thin, or chop into small pieces.
- Heat soup pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Saute onions in your choice of water, olive oil or veggie broth. Add 1 tablespoon at a time to keep onions from sticking to pan and cook, stirring for about 3 minutes. Add ginger, garlic, cumin, cinnamon, crushed pepper and salt. Stir constantly until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Then add sweet potato, parsnip, cauliflower and lentils. Mix to thoroughly coat veggies with spices. Stir in crushed tomatoes and veggie broth. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low, simmer for 20 minutes.
- Stir in kale and let stew continue to simmer to additional 10 minutes. Then mix in peanut butter, lemon and maple syrup.
- If you like a much thicker stew, then puree about ¼ of it with an immersion blender or by ladling it into a blender and then stirring everything well to incorporate the chunky veggies into the puree.
Notes
Nutrition
Note
The nutrition calculations were done using online tools. To obtain the most accurate representation of the nutritional information in any given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients you used. You are ultimately responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information is accurate, complete and useful.
Janine
It took almost an hour to throw together but it’s definitely worth it. A cozy, delicious, flavorful dish, with enough leftovers for lunch, (or in my case single,, I’ll be eating for several dinners)
Debra Klein
Glad you liked it…it’s quickly become one of my favorite lunches, so I always make enough for leftovers.
Tina
Possibly nicest stew I’ve ever made!
Debra Klein
Awesome….definitely stew weather over here and I could use a hearty bowl tonight!