Rachel Ama's African peanut stew

Tuesday 13 August at 5:58pm

Healthy meals don’t have to be boring. Rachel Ama is in the kitchen with an exciting one-pot dish that’ll leave you stuffed without feeling guilty - sweet potato stew with red cabbage slaw.

African peanut stew

Taken from Rachel Ama’s Vegan Eats

Serves: 4

Ingredients

For the paste

2 onions, roughly chopped

5 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

Thumb-sized piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and roughly chopped

1 tbsp paprika

2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground turmeric

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground fenugreek

Pinch of salt

For the peanut stew

1-2 tbsp peanut oil

500g sweet potatoes, peeled and diced

1 x 400g tin of black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed

½ - 1 fresh red Scotch Bonnet chilli (to taste), deseeded kept in a whole piece.

3 tbsp tomato puree

1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes

500 ml vegetable stock

125g natural smooth peanut butter (if you can’t eat peanut butter try almond or cashew butter)

200g spinach, chopped

1 tbsp lemon juice

Handful of fresh coriander, chopped

2 spring onions, finely chopped

1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced

Salt and black pepper

For the red cabbage slaw

½ small red cabbage, shredded

½ small white cabbage, shredded

3 carrots, peeled and coarsely grated

4 spring onions, finely chopped

200ml vegan mayonnaise

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Salt and black pepper

Handful of parsley, finely chopped to garnish

Method

Place all the paste ingredients in a food processor and blitz into a coarse paste
Heat 1 tablespoon of the peanut oil in a large, heavy based saucepan or shallow frying pan. Add the paste and sauté over a medium–low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding a little more oil if the paste starts to stick to the pan.
Add the sweet potatoes, black-eyed peas, Scotch bonnet chilli (if using – see introduction) and tomato purée and mix to combine. Pour in the tinned tomatoes and vegetable stock, add the peanut butter, season with salt and pepper and stir in well. Cover the pan with a lid and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove from the heat and stir in the spinach, leaving it to wilt in the pan for 5 minutes. To finish, add the lemon juice, coriander, spring onions and sliced chillies and check the seasoning, adding more salt and pepper if needed.
For the red cabbage slaw: place the cabbage, carrots and spring onions in a large bowl. Add the mayonnaise and lemon juice and mix together well, seasoning to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to a serving bowl and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes before serving garnishing with the parsley.
Serve the peanut stew with the red cabbage slaw