This Slow Cooker Peanut Stew is a hearty dish made with chickpeas, sweet potatoes and peanut butter. It's also gluten-free and vegan!
Ingredients and substitutions
- Olive oil – or any other neutral cooking oil like avocado, grapeseed or canola oil.
- Garlic – I like using fresh minced garlic, but the jarred variety works as well.
- Yellow onions – white onions would work in a pinch.
- Sweet potatoes – butternut or acorn squash are great alternatives.
- Curry powder – make your own blend using cumin, coriander, chili, turmeric and pepper.
- Cumin – chili powder, paprika or more curry powder are good substitutes here.
- Chili powder – use a combination of paprika, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano and cayenne.
- Vegetable broth – chicken broth is a good non-vegan substitute.
- Peanut butter – try another kind of nut or seed butter like almond butter or tahini.
- Crushed tomatoes – you could try passata (jarred strained tomatoes).
- Chickpeas – lentils or kidney beans would work in a pinch.
- Red pepper – or any other bell pepper of your choice like orange or yellow.
- Spinach – use any type of leafy green like chard or kale.
- Cilantro – parsley would be the next best option but has a different taste.
- Crushed peanuts – leave these out altogether if you don’t like or are allergic to peanuts.
- Basmati rice – use any rice variety of your choice like jasmine or brown rice.
- Salt – to taste.
How to make slow cooker peanut stew
- Add everything but the spinach, cilantro, peanuts and rice to the slow cooker.
- Cook on high for four hours or low for eight hours.
- Stir in the spinach.
- Top with peanuts and cilantro.
- Serve over basmati rice and enjoy!
Stovetop and Instant Pot instructions
You can also easily make this recipe on the stove! Here's how to do it:
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- Heat olive oil in a large pot over med-high heat, then saute onions, garlic and spices for 2-3 minutes until softened.
- Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot except for spinach, cilantro, peanuts and rice.
- Bring to a boil, then cover with a lid, reduce heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- When ready to serve, stir in spinach. Top each bowl with peanuts and cilantro and serve with basmati rice.
You can even make this recipe in the Instant Pot! Here's how:
- Dump everything into the Instant Pot in order that it appears listed above except for red pepper, spinach, cilantro, peanuts and rice.
- Cook on high pressure for 2 minutes and then do a quick release of the pressure.
- Remove lid, then stir in red pepper and spinach. Top each bowl with peanuts and serve with basmati rice.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can cook this stew on high for four hours or on low for eight hours. It’s a great hands-off meal option – let it simmer all day before enjoying in the evening. You can also make this peanut stew on the stovetop or in the Instant Pot if you’re looking for a faster cook time.
I like to serve this peanut stew with basmati or jasmine rice, but you could also serve it with quinoa, wild rice, crusty bread, a side salad, soba noodles or rice noodles.
This recipe is super thick and delicious – but if you accidentally add in too much vegetable broth, you can add a little potato starch, cornstarch or chickpea flour to thicken it up.
Storing and reheating peanut stew
This peanut stew will last as leftovers in the fridge up to 5 days. Store in a large container or in individual portion sizes in glass meal prep bowls so all you have to do is reheat for 2-3 minutes in the microwave. It's super easy and the leftovers taste just as good as a fresh serving!
Freezing peanut stew
You can also freeze this cooked peanut stew. Freeze in individual servings in glass bowls with lids and you can reheat right from frozen for 6-7 minutes in the microwave, stirring halfway through the reheat time. Garnish with fresh cilantro and peanuts and it's as good as new!
More slow cooker faves
- One Pot Butternut Squash Chicken Curry
- Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Lentil Chili
- Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Dal Red Lentils
Meal prep tools
- Get your Instant Pot here!
- Get your Slow Cooker here!
- I also love these glass meal prep bowls for reheating this peanut stew in individual portions
Slow Cooker Peanut Stew {Gluten-Free + Vegan}
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 2 small yellow onions, diced
- 2 medium-sized sweet potatoes, cubed
- 1 tbsp curry powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 1/3 cup peanut butter
- 1 (796mL) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 red pepper, chopped
- 2 cups spinach, chopped
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro (for garnish)
- 1/4 cup chopped peanuts
- 3 cups cooked basmati rice (optional side)
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to slow cooker except for spinach, cilantro, peanuts and rice. Cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 8 hours.
- When ready to serve, stir in spinach. Top each bowl with peanuts and cilantro and serve with basmati rice.
- INSTANT POT INSTRUCTIONS: Dump everything into the Instant Pot in order that it appears listed above except for red pepper, spinach, cilantro, peanuts and rice. Cook on high pressure for 2 minutes and then do a quick release of the pressure. Remove lid, then stir in red pepper and spinach. Top each bowl with peanuts and serve with basmati rice.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Olivia says
Good stuff!
Robyn says
I’m just trying this recipe and trying to guess what a medium sweet potato is. Would two cups chopped be enough sweet potato for this recipe,?
Taylor Stinson says
Hi Robyn – that sounds about right.
Robyn says
I just wanted to say that I’m back again to make this receipe! It has turned into a favorite. It’s something tasty but different than my normal flavors, and easy peasy too! Just perfect, thank you Taylor 🙂
Taylor Stinson says
I’m so happy you love it so much!!! 🙂
Mohn Jadden says
This recipe doesn’t work for soaked dry chickpeas. Mine were soaked overnight, rinsed, and drained. 2 minutes at high pressure is nowhere near enough, and I got burn errors when I tried to bring it back up thereafter. Caveat emptor, I guess. Canned or nothing here.
Taylor Stinson says
The recipe does say to use one can of chickpeas – dry chickpeas need a lot more cook time and you would get the burn message by stirring.
Nicole says
Can’t wait to try this! Do you have an idea of how long/what setting you would cook this in a traditional crock pot? Thanks!
Taylor Stinson says
Hi Nicole – I’m not sure what you mean by traditional crockpot. The instructions listed here should work for any type of slow cooker/crockpot.
Jane says
I followed the recipe exactly and it was easy and delicious and my kids loved it. Thanks for sharing it.
Scott Ferguson says
Hi there,
I don’t see paprika on the ingredients but it’s in The video. Wondering how much to use
Taylor Stinson says
Oh no, that looks to be a typo! It should have said chili powder, not paprika in the video. The written recipe is correct. Sorry about that!
T says
Are the nutritional values with or without the rice?
Taylor Stinson says
They are including the rice 🙂
Heather says
Can you please tell me how much is your serving? Is it a cup? I haven’t divided the dish into six parts and then measured. Hoping to avoid that. Thanks!
Taylor Stinson says
I don’t provide servings by weight/cup unfortunately! You will need to take the number of servings listed and divide into portions. Each portion is a serving. The reason I don’t give out serving sizes is because you need to make sure to divide it all evenly as even just a one cup serving size could have vastly different nutritional info if the chicken, rice, etc isn’t divided up completely evenly.
Sara Powell says
I’ve made this a few times now and LOVE it! However, do you think I could try using dried chickpeas for it? How might it change the cooking time?
Taylor Stinson says
Hi Sara! I’m so glad you love this recipe! I haven’t tried it with dried chickpeas, I wish I could help here. I’ve never cooked with them before so I wouldn’t even know what advice to offer. Sorry about that!
Sara Powell says
Wanted to update my experience 🙂
I decided to wing it and still put dry chickpeas in and cooked it on low for the 8 hours, and it turned out wonderfully still! It definitely would not work if high for 4 hours, but legit slow and low cooking turned out just as good as when I’d used canned chickpeas.
Taylor Stinson says
I’m so glad to know that dried chickpeas can work in the slow cooker. Thanks for sharing your experience 🙂
David says
Soak the chick peas overnight then use as usual. Cheers.
Lime says
Quick question. What kind of peanut butter should be used? Smooth, crunchy, roasted? Your recipe doesn’t specify
Taylor Stinson says
I use smooth peanut butter, just the regular kind 🙂
Rebecca gray says
Great recipe, I was looking for a recipe for my friends coming that are vegan, sounded nice. Threw it all in did have coming handy so just added a little bit more of the other spices. Left it on for 7-8 on low while I went out for the day. Served up with rice, topped with crushed peanuts and corriandor and poppadoms. My friend said it was restaurant standered and better than alot of vegan food she’s had so that was nice 😊 calories seemed good to. Thank you I will be making this again.