Melissa Thompson’s peanut and sweet potato stew recipe

“This dish is unashamedly West African, where peanut stews are common,” says food writer Melissa Thompson.

“Yet I’ve included it here because the movement of peanuts around the world tells of the trading routes that saw food, goods and people cross the Atlantic through the Columbian Exchange and beyond. The Spanish are said to have taken them back to Spain following their exploration of the so-called New World, where they were planted. From there they were taken to Africa, probably through trade, before being returned to the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade.

“Today, peanuts grow throughout Jamaica, especially in St Elizabeth. So while this isn’t a Jamaican dish, it’s one that draws on the West African influence that has inspired island food.”

Peanut and sweet potato stew

Ingredients:
(Serves 4-6)

1 onion, chopped
Vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2.5cm piece of ginger, finely grated
2tsp ground turmeric
1tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground coriander
1tsp ground fenugreek seeds
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 2.5cm cubes
400ml vegetable stock
400g can of red kidney beans, drained
2tbsp peanut butter
2 mature bunches of spinach, washed and roughly chopped, coarse stalks removed
Sea salt
Boiled rice, to serve

Method:

1. In a Dutch pot or large saucepan, fry the onion in a little oil. After eight minutes, add the garlic and ginger and cook for another couple of minutes before adding the spices, mixed with a little water to prevent them burning. Stir and cook until the spices become aromatic.

2. Add the sweet potatoes and stir to coat, then pour in the stock and add the beans and peanut butter. Put a lid on the pot and cook for 10–15 minutes until the sweet potatoes are soft.

3. Remove the lid, mix in the spinach and leave for five minutes until cooked through. Taste, then add salt until seasoned as you prefer.

4. Serve with boiled rice.

Motherland by Melissa Thompson is published by Bloomsbury Publishing, priced £26. Photography by Patricia Niven. Available now.