Sweet Potato, Spinach & Peanut Butter Stew

The other day, I woke up with the combination of sweet potatoes and spinach in my head and wanted to pair them together in a soup. While spinach and sweet potatoes can be found together in many recipes, I had a hard time finding one I wanted to try. Either I was missing lots of ingredients, or they were more of an Indian-inspired recipe. I'm not sure why, but I don't usually care for most Indian dishes.

Then I began thinking of a favorite in our household, Peanut Butter Chicken. So I googled "sweet potato, spinach and peanut butter," and found tons of recipes! I found that combo is traditional in West African stews. Again, most of these I was missing ingredients, so I just decided to take my PB Chicken recipe and adapt it. It was a gamble for sure, but one that paid off because it was so good! Even Beckett loved it (but then peanut butter, sweet potatoes and mushrooms all rank in his top favorite foods list.) I will be experimenting with more vegetarian versions of PB Chicken in the future!

I intended garnishing this with cilantro, but forgot. And then forgot again, when we had the leftovers, but I imagine it would go well.

1 tbsp olive oil

1 large carrot, diced

2 medium sweet poatoes, in small dice (around 3 cups)

sea salt and fresh ground pepper

1 small onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

8 oz. sliced button mushrooms

1 3/4 cup vegetable stock

2 oz. (1/4 cup) tomato sauce

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 cup natural peanut butter (I use crunchy, but either will work.)

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (or to taste)

1/2 (9 oz.) bag baby spinach

hot cooked rice (We had ours over Jasmine)

cilantro, for serving

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add carrots and sweet potatoes to the pan, and season with salt and pepper. Saute for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add onion, garlic and mushrooms, and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is soft, about 5 minutes.

Add 1 cup of the stock, tomato sauce, ginger, and red pepper flakes. Reduce heat to medium low, cover, and simmer until potatoes and carrots are tender, about 5 minutes.

Stir peanut butter into the sweet potato mixture until smooth. It will be quite thick, so add a little extra of the broth to thin the sauce. Add spinach to pan, and wilt. If needed add more of the broth to bring to desired thickness (I didn't measure, but I used somewhere between 1/2-3/4 cup broth to get the consistency I wanted.)

Serve over rice and top with cilantro, if desired.