Wholesome One-Pot Sweet Potato Stew - a cozy blend of sweet potatoes, coconut milk, spices, kale, and lentils. Perfect comfort food in a bowl!
Sweet Potato Stew
This recipe is Vegetarian, Vegan, Dairy-free, and Gluten Free.
Just like my quick mushroom stroganoff, pumpkin curry, and chickpea cauliflower curry, this vegan stew is a winner dinner because it’s easy to make and doesn’t require many ingredients.
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Ingredients
- Dried brown lentils - Unlike green lentils, they're tastier and cook faster. Save red lentils for soups.
- Vegetable broth - Or whatever broth you want to use.
- Aromatics - Garlic, onion and ginger are the best base for this kind of soup.
- Coconut milk - Shake the can before adding to the soup. You need all of it - the crema and the milk for a hearty stew.
- Spices - Coriander, cumin, turmeric, chili flakes, black pepper add complexity.
- Sweet potatoes - Thanks to their sweetness and tender texture, they are by far the best for creamy coconut milk-based stews or soups.
📋 You can find the full ingredient list in the Recipe Card below the article.
How To Make Vegetarian Sweet Potato Stew
- In a large pot over medium heat, sauté onions until translucent.
- Then add ginger, garlic, chili flakes, coriander, cumin, and turmeric.
- Add the sweet potatoes to the pot and stir to coat in the spices.
- Follow with lentils and stir to combine all the ingredients.
- Pour in the vegetable stock, cover it with the lid, and bring it to a boil.
- Reduce the heat to low and simmer until lentils become tender but the potatoes are almost cooked.
- Stir in the coconut milk and kale.
- Add the lime juice. Continue to simmer with closed lid until kale is softened slightly about 3 minutes.
- Season with salt if needed and simmer for a few minutes more.
- Squeeze 1-2 lime wedges into the soup.
- Pour into individual bowls and garnish with fresh sliced jalapenos, chili flakes, lime wedges, cilantro. Serve with fresh bread or cornbread.
Tips
- Soak the lentils for a couple of hours or overnight to reduce cooking time and make digestion easy.
- Use more flavorful vegetables. In addition to kale, garlic, onion and sweet potatoes, carrots, and celery, butternut squash, pumpkin, zucchini, peas, and fresh or canned tomatoes are tasty options to fill up this soup with even more fiber and nutritional benefits!
- Let the soup simmer enough to thicken and become even more aromatic once the ingredients have enough time to blend.
- This stew thickness can be easily adjusted by using more or less broth or coconut milk.
How To Serve Vegetarian Stew
- Crusty bread + roasted pepper hummus
- Biscuits
- Cornbread
- Green salad
- Tomatoes
- Lime
- Fresh Herbs
- kale salad
Variations
- You can add vegan sausage or ground meat to your soup. Before adding these, brown the meat in a skillet with a little cooking oil.
- Swap sweet potato for butternut squash, acorn squash, pumpkin, cauliflower (I have a similar and very delicious Chickpea and Cauliflower Coconut Curry recipe if you want to try next), carrots, turnip, rutabaga, kabocha.
- Swap lentils for barley, chickpeas, and red lentils (should be added on the very last step when simmering)
- Swap kale for spinach, green beans, mushrooms, parsnips, and celery.
Storing and Freezing Instructions
- To Store. Let the lentil stew cool completely, and transfer it to airtight containers, refrigerate, and consume within 2-3 days.
- To Freeze. The best time to freeze it is right after making it. Let the stew cool down first, then transfer to airtight containers. Freeze for 2-3 months. You may need to add more liquid when reheating it after thawing.
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Recipe Card
Vegetarian Stew With Sweet Potato
Warm and hearty One-Pot Vegetarian Lentil Stew with sweet potatoes is packed with good-for-you ingredients: delicious tender sweet potatoes, creamy coconut milk, aromatic spices, kale, and lentils! This lentil stew is incredibly fulfilling and true comfort food in one bowl. This recipe is Vegetarian, Vegan, Dairy-free, and Gluten Free.
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INGREDIENTS
- 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled, cubed
- ½ cup brown lentils properly rinsed
- 4 cup kale stems removed and leaves chopped
- 3 ¾ cup vegetable stock
- 13.5 oz can coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon vegetable or coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon lime juice, freshly squeezed
- 1 teaspoon chili flakes
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon ginger minced
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 small onion
- salt to taste
- cilantro, chili flakes, fresh jalapeno, lime wedges for garnish
INSTRUCTIONS
- In a large pot over medium heat, add oil and saute onions until translucent. Add ginger, garlic, chili flakes, coriander, cumin, turmeric.
- Add the sweet potatoes to the pot and stir to coat in the spices. Follow with lentils and stir to combine all the ingredients.
- Pour in the vegetable stock, cover with the lid and bring to a boil.
- Reduce the heat to low and simmer until lentils become tender but the potatoes almost cooked.
- Stir in the coconut milk and kale. Add the lime juice. Continue to simmer with closed lid until kale is softened slightly about 3 minutes. Season with salt if needed and simmer for a few minutes more. if needed, squeeze more lime juice, it enhances the soup flavor A LOT!
- Your stew is ready! Pour into individual bowls and garnish with fresh sliced jalapenos, chili flakes, lime wedges, cilantro. Serve with fresh bread or cornbread.
NOTES
Don’t add salt if you have already salted vegetable stock or add it in the later stage if needed.
ADD YOUR OWN PRIVATE NOTES
NUTRITION
Calories: 307kcal
Tried this recipe?@theyummy_bowl and tag #theyummy_bowl! Thank you!
Note: Nutrition information is estimated and varies based on the products used.
Full Nutrition Disclaimer can be found here.
Susie DiVietro
New favorite soup! This recipe has been shared across my family and made many times! I double the lentils and it’s barely noticeable. Thank you!
Julia
Thank you for the tip and commenting Susie!
Diana
Hi. Are these regular lentils or beluga chunkier dark lentils?
Julia
These are regular brown lentils you'll find in grocery store. Something like this: https://amzn.to/4fn8M5p
Deb L
This is very tasty. I served it with yogurt and lime pickle on top and naan on the side. A keeper!
Julia
it tastes delicious with naan or pita bread!!!
Laura
You don't specify what to do with the sweet potatoes - small dice? large dice? thin slice? thick slice?????
Julia | The Yummy Bowl
hi Laura! Medium diced, about 1/2 inch will be great and will cook quickly!
Jay
Wonderful flavor!This soup,is absolutely delicious!
Julia
Thank you Jay, please check more coconut milk recipes if you are a fan ) You gonna love these as well!!!
Jessica Formicola
I love anything with sweet potatoes, and this stew looks incredible! I can't wait to make it for dinner tonight!
Julia
me too! the best versatile veggie out there! 🙂
Marie
Made this tonight. My husband and I both enjoyed the wonderful flavors and it came together quickly. This recipe will be a regular at our house!
Julia | The Yummy Bowl
thank you so much, glad you liked it!!
Kay
I love how the coconut compliments this lentil stew recipe. The jalapenos were a great touch too!
Julia
thank you so much!
Michelle Boule
we made this the other night and loved it! It was so full of flavor and was perfect on a cold day
Julia
thank you so much Michelle, the ultimate comfort food 🙂
Linner
The directions don’t specify it but I assume that you peel the sweet potatoes before adding them to the pot? Or at least cube them to some size?
Recipe mentions lime juice but instructions says to squeeze limes wedges into soup as well as lime juice. So … add limes to ingredient list?
Otherwise this recipe sounds delicious and I am looking forward to trying it.
Julia
Hi Linner, potatoes yes we peel and cube them. Lime juice as per recipe (I modified the instructions).
Kate
Gorgeous stew, and packed with so many lovely flavours. Thanks for a great recipe!
Julia
thank you so much Kate!
comfort food
I really enjoy curries, so I'm looking forward to trying this out. Sweet potatoes and coconut milk are so delicious together.
Julia
thank you! Coconut milk makes everything so delicious, right? Hope you'll enjoy and please report back how it went!
Rita
Made this stew this week and everyone was raving! Definetly keeping this for my staple recipe collection! Thank you
Julia
Thank you so much Rita, I'm so glad you liked it!
Casi
This recipe is so good! We made the stew 2 times this month! I am allergic to garlic so added more onion and it was delicious!
Julia
Thank you so much, so happy that you loved the recipe even the adapted version!
Bear
I am getting ready to make the soup and the first instruction is to saute onions until translucent. WHAT ONIONS? They are not listed in the list of ingredients. Curses! Now I have to go back to the store!
Julia
Hi, I'm so sorry about this. I have now added the onion to the ingredient list, but it is totally fine to make it without. Still will taste good! Sad to hear that because of this you have rated my recipe 3 stars.
Asia
Hi Julia,
have you made this in the instant pot?
Julia
hi Asia, unfortunately not.
Christine
See my reply to Asia, maybe you can add this as a note and you can blame me, as I haven't tried it yet, but have with other lentil, black eyed pea all with kale/spinach/collard greens recipes in the instapot
Christine
That's what note/ comment I was looking for....I believe a different recipe I make in the ipot is about the same - saute onions/ basic veggies until translucent add seasonings saute for another minute add broth, lentils, sweet potatoes stir, then add kale on top seal pot set for 22 or so minutes. 5-10 minute natural release then release remaining pressure. Stir the already tender kale in, turn on low/medium saute (whatever will create a simmer for your pot, then add the coconut milk, lime juice and simmer for 3 minutes and then follow the remaining instructions. Good luck!!