Okay, YUMMMM. Spicy Peanut Soup with Sweet Potatoes + Kale! Comforting and SUPER nutritious. Naturally vegan, gluten free, refined sugar free, ALL THE GOOD THINGS.
Spicy Peanut Soup with Sweet Potato + Kale
Spicy Peanut Soup. Are you ready?
All the people shout: WE ARE READY!
Featured comment
So, so yummy! I just made this soup and the final result exceeded my expectations – just pure peanuty, creamy, and entirely healthy goodness.
Christina
When eating well involves:
- sweet potatoes
- peanuts / peanut butter
- fire roasted tomatoes
- garlic and jalapeño
- cilantro
…and a generally creamy, spicy, YUMMY vibe, there is no denying this.
You guys, this soup! Stew? It’s kind of both. It depends on how you make it and how much liquid you add, but EITHER WAY IT IS SO DARN GOOD. It literally checks all the boxes – creamy, satisfying texture; extremely awesome flavor; super nutritious; doesn’t take five and a half days to make. It doesn’t have meat, but girl, if you want meat, add meat! Not huge on kale? Swap for spinach. These are my favorite kinds of recipes – ones that just kind of let you do whatever you want to do and make it your very own.
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How To Make This Peanut Soup
Okay, you’ve got choices here.
- Instant Pot: Raise your hand if you got one for Christmas. Yeah? Good news, because this can be made in the Instant Pot!
- Slow Cooker: also a yes!
- Stovetop: ALSO a yes! In almost the same amount of time! You just need to babysit it a little more, but hey – babysitting garlic, onion, jalapeño, sweet potatoes, and a creamy soup base as it comes together happens to be my all-time favorite kind of babysitting.
- Freezing it for meal prep: OF COURSE YES! More on that HERE.
So many options, all made easy when you have so little time.
Why I Love This Soup
This soup is cozy and lovely. It’s not too spicy, although you could just omit the jalapeño altogether if you were worried about that. It has just the right balance of creaminess and kick and it reminds me of another version of a good-for-you curry. Speaking of which, this would go great over some brown rice or quinoa.
You would not be sad if you made a skillet of socca (bread! hot, buttery, crispy, gluten-free chickpea flat bread!) to go with this soup.
You have no excuses. I am not letting you get out of making this recipe.
Blanket, soup mug, and Netflix, coming right up.
Spicy Peanut Soup: FAQs
Can this soup be made in the Instant Pot or slow cooker?
Yes! See recipes notes.
Can I substitute anything for the peanut butter?
Almond butter (and almonds on top) could work!
Can I add protein to this?
Sure can! Cubed chicken would be perfect. Just simmer for a bit longer until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.
Spicy Peanut Soup with Sweet Potato + Kale
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 5–6 (about 1 1/2 cups per serving) 1x
Description
Okay, YUMMMM. Spicy Peanut Soup with Sweet Potatoes + Kale! Comforting and SUPER nutritious. Naturally vegan, gluten free, refined sugar free, ALL THE GOOD THINGS.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- half an onion, diced
- 1 jalapeno, minced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
- one 14-ounce can fire roasted tomatoes
- one 14-ounce can light coconut milk
- 2 cups water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon curry and/or turmeric
- 1/2 cup chopped peanuts
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
- 1–2 cups kale, stems removed, chopped
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat and add the onion, garlic, and jalapeño. Saute until soft and fragrant.
- Add sweet potatoes. I like to brown them a little bit with the aromatics to get them nice and flavorful.
- Add tomatoes, coconut milk, water, spices, and peanuts. Simmer until sweet potatoes are fork-tender.
- Add peanut butter and kale. Simmer until everything is thick, creamy, and delicious. Top with more peanuts and a little cilantro if you’re obsessed like me.
Notes
Instant Pot: Cook everything except peanut butter and kale on high pressure for about 3 minutes with a quick release. (Sometimes I reduce the liquid when I make it in the Instant Pot by a cup or so, and then just add more as needed when it’s all done. But that is optional – it should work fine either way.) Stir in the peanut butter and kale after cooking. Voila!
Slow Cooker: Cook everything except peanut butter and kale on low for 6 hours. Stir in the peanut butter and kale. Donezo! Don’t cook the sweet potatoes too long or they’ll fall apart on ya! Just cook until they pierce easily with a fork. If you’re doing Sugar Free January with us, this is an excellent recipe that has natural sweetness and nutritious fats to keep you full. I like to dip into this with some seedy crackers – you can find our product recommendations on this post.
One last note. This recipe is inspired by an amazing West African recipe called maafe, or groundnut soup. I did what I always do and changed/added some ingredients based on what I love and what I had on hand (kale, jalapeño, coconut milk, cilantro, etc.) making it more of a cultural mash-up. That’s why I’m not calling it a proper West African peanut soup even though those are its roots. If you want a legit West African version of that soup, here are two sources – a blog post, and a video.
Freezer Meal Version
- Freeze Together:
3 cups chopped sweet potatoes, fresh or frozen
2 jalapeños, minced
half of an onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
1 14-ounce can fire roasted tomatoes
1 14-ounce can coconut milk - Instant Pot Instructions: High pressure 8 mins + 10 mins natural release
- Slow Cooker Instructions: High setting 6 hours
- Final Step: Stir in 1/4 cup peanut butter, 1/2 cup chopped peanuts, and 1-2 cups chopped kale. Add water to thin to desired consistency.
- Check out our full freezer meal posts with all recipes and instructions here!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: West African-Inspired
Keywords: peanut soup, peanut stew, Instant Pot soup, spicy soup, sweet potato soup
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View the freezer meal version of this recipe here.
You might also like our full freezer meals post.
More Soup Recipes To Love
- Instant Pot Wild Rice Soup (creamy, cozy, and everything you need)
- Best Detox Crockpot Lentil Soup (add a lil’ Parmesan and perfection)
- Instant Pot Minestrone Soup (made modern without the pasta!)
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our best healthy winter recipes page. Check it out!
Filed Under: All Recipes Dairy-Free Gluten-Free Healthy Instant Pot Jalapeño Kale Most Popular Peanut Butter Soups Stovetop Sugar Free January Sugar-Free Sweet Potato Tomato Vegan Winter
January 9, 2020
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
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I have really liked most of your recipes (although I usually need to add more spices for flavor) but this is one that I did not care for at all. My daughter and husband thought it was okay but definitely not one of our favorites.
The slow cooker instructions list cook time as 6 hours on low, but the freezer recipe says 6 hours on high. Is it that much of a difference with the ingredients being frozen? I am planning to make a double batch in my crock pot tomorrow for a work event and just want to be sure I have it right.
Amazing recipe! I will try for sure!
Hi! I am alergic to coconut. I’m assuming that I can substitute a different milk product for the recipe; do you have any suggestions as per resulting texture/creaminess? Thank you!
Hi, Caroline! You could do whole milk or cream in its place. Enjoy!
Loved this soup!! Made in the instapot and swapped spinach for kale since it already had it. Added a bit more peanut butter, ginger, both the turmeric and curry and wow was it good. Topped with crushed peanuts and a dollop of garlic chili sauce. So quick and easy. Can’t wait to prep for freezer meals and serve again this winter! Thanks for sharing <3
I usually love Pinch of Yum recipes, I found this soup very bland. I even doubled amount of garlic used at the beginning.
Just trying your spicy peanut soup – my daughter loves making it. Is there any chance in the future you can give measurements or weights for some of your ingredients ( sweet potatoes for example.) I’m vegan and notice you have lots of recipes – looking forward to trying them out.
Thank you ! 🙂
Delicious! The only modification that I did was to use up a leftover box of chicken broth for the water. So it was about 1.5 cups broth and .5 cups water. I also used my immersion blender to mix it all up and the results were delicious. Not too spicy and really really creamy. Will for sure make again.
Delicious! Added chickpeas at end for some protein. Delicious and easy!!
Thoughts on using spinach instead of kale? Trying to avoid going to the grocery store if possible!
That should work!
Really nice , Thank you for sharing amazing Soup.
Do you use raw peanuts or roasted peanuts?
We like roasted peanuts!
Made this tonight. Was very easy and delicious!
Seems like it made way more than 6 servings so lucky me!
I wish recipes would use weights of ingredients instead of “large” sweet potato… there are so many sizes! But not a huge deal.
Hi! I’m cooking for someone who is vegan and allergic to sweet potatoes- my sister in law sent me this recipe and I thought I could potentially swap out the sweet potatoes for butternut squash…do you think the flavors and everything would still work?
For sure, Molly!
Made this for dinner and it was so good! I doubled the amount of garlic and spices, and I used a Serrano pepper instead of jalapeño. It turned out thick and creamy with a great flavor! This will be going into the rotation with the POY kale, bean and sausage soup!
The title says ‘spicy’ but with one chopped jalapeno, it was not hot at all. If you truly want it hot, I would suggest adding 2+ jalapenos. With this batch, I only added the curry powder, but next time I will add the tumeric.
Instructions for instapot do not make sense. Please explain.
Hi Jose! You’ll cook everything except the peanut butter and kale on manual mode for 3 minutes. When the 3 minutes are up, release the pressure, and add in the peanut butter and kale.
I think I have made this 10 times at least! So flavorful!
This is an amazing week night soup! Ready in no time and the sweet potato was soft and perfect! It has become a family favourite!
Peanut butter is my best friend in soups like this. We do usually add sweet peanut butter because we tend to add a lot of heat to our soups and it balances out nicely.
This was amazing! I made it as a side dish to Jamaican Jerk Chicken with Coconut Rice and Jamaican Cabbage. The only thing I regretted was that I took all the seeds out of the jalapeño so the soup was not spicy at all. Next time jalepeno seeds stay in because we love spice around here! But still the flavors of the soup were wonderful! My 14 year old son loved it too. He ate two bowls! And by request, he took leftovers for his packed school lunch today. Definitely will make it again!
Wonderful recipe! Will definitely make again. Thank you!
LOVE this recipe. (Full disclosure, I had some extra veggies in fridge to use up so I added some chopped red and green pepper and mushrooms. Left out chopped peanuts (didn’t have) and used boxed no sweet coconut milk instead of canned since that’s what I had in pantry. B/c hubby is concerned about protein intake, I also added a can of chick peas. ) Will definitely make again. Thanks for recipe!
Would it change the flavor profile dramatically if I were to use chicken bone broth in place of water?
This soup was so delicious. My husband loved it and she’s looking forward to taking it to work tomorrow for lunch. He’s my carnivore. This recipe is a keeper. Followed the recipe to a T!
I don’t think it would at all!
I love all variations of peanut- sweet potato soup, so I gave your recipe a whirl. Absolutely delicious! I made a few concessions based on what I had in the house. I like to use what I have on hand instead of running out every time I try a new recipe.
Here were my changes, they were minor:
1)I used small asian chiles for heat, since I did not have jalapeños on hand. They were perfect and added the right kick.
2)I used regular chopped tomatoes instead of fire roasted. I am sure the fire roasted would go beautifully as well.
3)I added one can of drained chickpeas for some added protein. I have had other peanut stews that used chickpeas and they went great with this soup.
4)I used an all natural peanut butter with nothing in it but peanuts. (Crazy Richards). I had to add just a touch more salt to the stew, because the peanut butter didn’t have any in it.