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
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So, so yummy! I just made this soup and the final result exceeded my expectations – just pure peanuty, creamy, and entirely healthy goodness.
Christina
Video For How To Make Peanut Soup
Spicy Peanut Soup. Are You Ready?
WE’RE READY!
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.
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.
You have no excuses. I am not letting you get out of making this recipe.
Blanket, soup mug, and Netflix, coming right up.
Ingredients In Peanut Soup
I love how all these ingredients work together to make such good flavor. Like, who knew tomatoes and peanut butter could exist in the same recipe? It works. It just really works.
Here’s what you’ll need for this recipe:
- Aromatics like onion, jalapeño, and garlic.
- Sweet potatoes.
- Fire-roasted tomatoes.
- Coconut milk.
- Curry powder.
- Peanuts and peanut butter.
- Kale.
Love this wholesome bunch. Gather it all up and let’s go!
How To Make Peanut Soup
There are just a few steps to bring this recipe from stove to table.
- Sauté the aromatics. Heat some oil and add the onion, garlic, and jalapeño.
- Add sweet potatoes. Get them a little browned and flavorful.
- Add liquid and spices. Coconut milk, tomatoes, curry powder, YUM.
- Finish with peanut butter and kale. This brings it to creamy, silky perfection, with a hit of nutrition at the end.
Ways To Make This Recipe
Here are a few methods to make this soup:
- 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.
What To Serve With Peanut Soup
If you’re looking for some buddies to serve alongside this soup, this is what I would recommend!
- Serve over rice or quinoa to bulk it up.
- Add a side salad for a little freshness and crunch.
- Make some bread or socca to dip and scoop that soup right out of the bowl.
Spicy Peanut Soup: FAQs
Can this soup be made in the Instant Pot?
Yes! 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!
Can this be made in a slow cooker?
Yes! 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.
Can I substitute anything for the peanut butter?
Almond butter (and almonds on top) could work!
Can I add meat to this?
Yes! You can either add cooked chicken at the end and mix it in, or cook chicken breasts or thighs right into the soup with everything else, and then shred it at the end once it’s cooked through and tender.
How can I add more protein to this as a vegetarian?
This works great with the addition of chickpeas or lentils.
Source Notes: This recipe is inspired by an amazing West African Peanut Stew 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.
Print
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 jalapeño, 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.
- 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
Make It A Freezer Meal!
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
- one 14-ounce can fire roasted tomatoes
- one 14-ounce can coconut milk
After Cooking:
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup chopped peanuts
- 1-2 cups kale, chopped
- 1-2 cups water
To Cook:
INSTANT POT: From frozen, 8 minutes on high pressure + 10 minutes natural release.
SLOW COOKER: From frozen, 5-6 hours on high.
FINAL STEP: Stir in peanut butter, peanuts, and kale. Add water to thin to desired consistency.
View more healthy freezer meals here!
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 Recipes 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’m hosting a soup exchange in a few weeks and this sounds perfect…and like something no one else will bring! I’m wondering if this soup freezes well in its final form since that’s kind of the idea of the party!
Thanks so much!
Hi Cara! Yes, this soup should freeze well.
I have to say I was skeptical as this soup was coming together but OMG it was amazing!!! Ive made it three times now and each time I get worried as its simmering but it turns out delicous each time!
Apparently I saved this recipe to a to-do list in April 2020. Yesterday I rediscovered it when looking for sweet potato recipes. So many of ingredients we don’t normally use or use in this way. And It’s safe to say we’d likely never associate many of these things as going together.
Anyway, we made it last night and were blown away at how good it was. Thank you for a recipe that took us way out of our comfort zones and truly paid off.
Love that. So glad you enjoyed it!
Will definitely try this recipe! Can you share more nuts related recipes? I found different nuts in this website https://kitchengeekery.com/uncategorized/best-nuts-for-health-and-cooking
Totally different and totally yummy! Only used turmeric. Used all the sweet potatoes and loved them! Used almond butter and almonds
This is my all-time FAVORITE soup and I’ve been making it for years. I recently moved in with my boyfriend who has a peanut allergy, so I just tried subbing sunbutter for the peanut butter (and left out the peanuts). Tasted just as amazing as the original recipe! I usually serve with pumpkin muffins – so good 🤤
Amazing! Delicious! Savory! All the things!! Wow🤩. Thank you so much. I’ve made this twice already.
Another household favorite – has the stamp of approval from my 2 and 1 year olds. We love to add some cannelli beans to this with the Kale for extra protein. Great served with pearl cous cous!
I love your recipes, but this one fell flat. Three large sweet potatoes seemed like too much for the amount of other flavorings in the soup/stew, and it ended up tasting bland, despite smelling amazing while cooking.
This is delicious! I added garbanzos for some added protein and served with quinoa
LOVE this recipe. I added the step of blending about a cup of the soup and adding it back in for a creamery texture!
Made this tonight and loved!! Added lentils and topped with chili crisp oil. New winter staple
This was delicious: I noticed in the video you added the peanuts when you added the peanut butter and kale. However the recipe says to add the peanuts when you mix in the tomatoes and potatoes. Anyway, it was still good. I modified it. Two sweet potatoes and 1 boneless skinless chicken breast for my meat loving husband. 😉 will make this again.
Holy cow, you must make this immediately! So easy, so delish! Makes amazing leftovers! Can’t wait to make this again and again.
Really delicious. I’ll be making this again soon. Everyone loved it including my toddler and my mom who claims she doesn’t like curry. I had a small head of cauliflower I wanted to use, so I added florets a little bit after the sweet potatoes. I also added a can of chickpeas. Those additions weren’t necessary, but they worked great.
I forgot to mention I added lime juice at the end and I think that took it from pretty good to really great.
This soup is amazing! Delicious, creamy, rich and such interesting layers of flavor! I did add a bit of grated ginger and some chicken also. I did both curry and tumeric. SO good. Thank you!
What a delicious soup!!!! So easy too…Keeping this in rotation. Thank you so much!
Made this tonight! More stewy than soupy to my preference. I also added a glug of thai curry paste. SO GOOD. Thanks for the recipe.
So I made a double batch kinda accidentally because I had too high of a
sweet potatoes ratio to the rest of the ingredients (I could only find small sweet potatoes and had to guess how many equaled a large one.) I might also you to add about how many cups of chopped sweet potatoes the recipe calls for! Additionally, since I have so much I was thinking of freezing some. Any experiencing with freezing and thawing coconut milk/sweet potatoes/kale…? I don’t have any
My son has peanut and tree nut allergy. Looking for advice on if sunflower butter and sunflower seeds would be a good substitute for his portion. Thanks!
The sunflower butter might work! Otherwise I’d just omit the peanuts and peanut butter – it’ll still be delicious. 🙂
I’d like to make this with squash. Any recommandation (weight, etc.)?
Thank you,
Dumb question. When making for freezer meal are you saying combine all ingredients in a bag, don’t cook and then freeze?
I did make this on the stovetop and it was awesome. It’s quick, cheap and healthy!
That’s correct!
So good! I used my immersion blender on about half of it to make it more closely resemble a West African Peanut Stew that used to be served at a restaurant where I worked. I ate it over rice, and it was absolutely scrumptious!
I’m just eating some of this leftover and it is delicious. I added both curry and turmeric and upped the curry a bit. I also added some ginger and a can of chickpeas. I’m a big fan. Very yummy. I Will definitely make this again.
Glad to hear it, Jen! Love the chickpea addition!
This was a real disappointment. Way too sweet while also tasting very bland. I added ginger, cumin, and more garlic to try and save it, but it was just ok.