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.
Prefer To Watch Instead Of Read?
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 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.
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
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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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.
THIS SOUP, it’s soul warming, lightly spicy, and a bit crunchy. I love this soup so much. I proselytize it to anyone who will listen.
Love it. Thanks Alisha!
We liked this a lot! I used an immersion blender at the end to make it a bit less chunky. Also felt like it needed just a bit more to be to our taste (which I do for all recipes, not just this) so added some soy sauce for umami, dried chiles for spice, and lime juice for a little acidic punch. Delish!
This was DELICIOUS. I can’t image calling it bland. I only had regular coconut milk so I used that, and I added a bit more salt and a bit more PB. Sweet, creamy, spicy. Fabulous. I love the soupy-stew consistency.
My family really enjoyed this soup. Delicious!