Sweet potato and peanut stew (p. 302)

And I'm caught up on my blog posts again! I've posted about ten new posts so be sure to check them all out. On a whim, I thought that Sweet potato and peanut stew (p. 302) sounded good. The recipe looked time consuming but easy.

I sauteed an onion, a bell pepper, and a jalapeno in some peanut oil:



After about ten minutes I added some garlic cloves and fresh ginger, followed by chili powder, cumin, and red pepper flakes. I cooked it for another minute and added some tomato paste. I just added the whole small can of tomato paste because I hate having some left over--I always forget about it and it's such a waste. I need to start buying tomato paste in squeeze bottles.



I added two sliced up sweet potatoes.



Eventually I added some turkey (it asks for 12 oz but who has 12 oz of meat? I added a pound) and some zucchini:



(There are lots of long cooking steps that I'm not detailing because I think they are boring)

I measured out some smooth peanut butter and added a cup of the broth to it to melt down the peanut butter:



The peanut butter mixture was then mixed into the rest:



And done! I made some couscous to pour the stew on. Most of you know the trouble I have with rice--I just can't get it to work because of the altitude. Couscous, on the other hand, worked on the first try. I used to eat couscous all the time but really burned out on it--maybe it's time to start eating it again!

The stew was good but oddly bland. I really don't understand why it was bland--there were so many strong flavors involved! Maybe it needed more peanut butter? That being said, it's a really filling stew and if you left out the turkey, it would be vegan. Even though it had the jalapeno, chili powder, and red pepper flakes, it wasn't spicy at all. I would say the main thing I learned from this recipe was that peanut butter and sweet potatoes go really well together--something that should be explored by me further.