Groundnut Stew

Vegan groundnut stew

I had planned on posting a recipe for a light summer pasta today, but the temperatures have dropped here and it's been almost chilly. So, I made a version of groundnut stew, which I originally had at a West African restaurant back in March. My version uses setian as the protein, but you could easily sub in chicken if you prefer, or just skip over the protein all together. It'll still be really filling.

I just used a few internet recipes for some inspiration, and mixed things up for my own liking. It's all super flexible, so I'm just going to give you a starting place and you can up the spice or use a different vegetable to liquid ratio if you want more of a soup.

1/2 lb. seitan
4 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into inch pieces (you can use a mix of waxy and sweet, or just all sweet)
1 yellow onion, diced
3-6 cloves garlic, pressed
3 inch piece of ginger, grated or 3 t ginger juice
1 T ground coriander
1 t cayenne pepper
1 t crushed red pepper
1 can (15 oz) crushed tomatoes
1 quart vegetable broth (really, you just need enough to cover everything, so reduce if you're making a smaller pot)
1 cup peanut butter, crunchy or creamy will do
1 cup peanuts, roasted but not salted

If you want to make a smaller pot of stew, just use fewer potatoes and adjust everything else accordingly (ie. less liquid, tomatoes, cut the spices in half, you get it!)

-Brown seitan in a tablespoon of oil, then set aside.
-In a bit of oil, cook onion for 2 minutes, add garlic and ginger (if using grated kind). Cook for another 2 minutes.
-Add spices, let toast for 30 seconds, add in potatoes and stir well. Add in the rest of the ingredients, stir well. It can take a few minutes for the peanut butter to stir into the rest.
-Bring to a simmer, test for salt. Add more if needed.
-Cover and let simmer for 40 minutes-1 hour. Check at 40 minutes to see if potatoes are broken down. 10 minutes before taking off the burner, add your seitan to the stew and stir well.
-Add as much black pepper as you can stand, this stew is supposed to be peppery, sweet and just a bit salty.

Serve as is, or as we had it at the restaurant: with simple rice and ginger beers.

There you go! It's really pretty simple and it makes a ton of leftovers. So, if it's suddenly gotten a little chilly where you are, give this a try!