Video Vegan Slow Cooker Peanut Stew (Maafe-Inspired)

Slow cooker peanut stew is vegan comfort food at it’s finest! With chickpeas, sweet potatoes, and peanut butter, it’s inspired by the West African peanut stew, maafe. You can assemble this ahead and freeze as a crockpot freezer meal.

Vegan freezer meals can be a challenge to find. Over the years, I’ve added some recipes to the site, including slow cooker butternut squash lentil curry and spicy slow cooker chickpea chili. This maafe-inspired slow cooker peanut stew is another favorite!

Reading: Vegan stew in slow cooker

peanut stew in bowl with spoon, bread in background

Not only is it warm and cozy, but hearty and delicious! With sweet potatoes, chickpeas, peanut butter and spices…I know, that probably sounds like the most random assortment of ingredients but I promise you it all works together in this soup!

After cooking through, I mashed the sweet potatoes and it ended up thick and almost creamy. So delicious!

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Table of Contents

Recipe video

Watch the video below to see exactly how I prepped this this recipe. It’s so easy! You can find more of my recipe videos on my YouTube channel.

What is Maafe?

Maafe is a popular West African stew that originated in Mali (1), but is also prepared in many other countries including (but not limited to) Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria and Mauritania (2). With a base consisting of tomatoes and ground nuts, maafe typically also contains meat, and is served with rice, couscous or sweet potatoes. Recipes vary greatly by chef and region, and can also include corn, peppers, paprika, carrots, onions and leafy vegetables.

For a traditional Maafe recipe + story on the cultural significance of this dish, check out this article.

My goal with this recipe was to honor the traditional flavors, while making it meat-free and slow cooker-friendly, making it easy to prepare in North American (US/Canada) kitchens. I hope this recipe can help introduce the flavors to new home cooks!

Ingredient notes

labeled ingredients required to make slow cooker peanut stew

sweet potatoes- cut them into larger chunks- 2 inches or so. I also recommend peeling them as they’ll mash into the soup better without the skins
chickpeas- use cooked chickpeas, whether from a can or homemade (I like these Instant Pot chickpeas)
stock- use vegetable stock to keep it vegan, or chicken stock if you aren’t
peanut butter- I tested this will all natural peanut butter- the only ingredients are peanuts (and occasionally salt). Processed nut butter can be sweet and might overpower this recipe.

Step by step directions

ingredients for peanut stew in the slow cooker before cooking

1. Combine ingredients- To the insert of a 5 quart or larger slow cooker, add the chickpeas, vegetable stock, salt, cumin, coriander, cayenne, diced tomatoes, sweet potatoes, peanut butter, onion, garlic and ginger. Stir to combine.

slow cooker with 6 hours programmed on display

2. Cook- Place the lid on your slow cooker and cook on low for 6 hours.

3. Add spinach- Add four handfulls of spinach to the slow cooker, then stir and put the lid back on. Set it to cook on high for 15 more minutes.

4. Mash & serve- Using a potato masher, mash up the sweet potatoes to thicken the stew. This is not necessary, and you can skip this step if you’d prefer. Enjoy with bread for dunking!