African Sweet Potato Stew w/ Red Beans. Yum.

One of the things we treasure in our house is the crock pot. It is as versatile a piece of cooking machinery as you could ever hope for. When we first got it, we made a lot of very exquisite dishes that tasted out of this world, but took a long time. The first thing we made when we got the crock pot was Stephanie’s Coq Au Vin, which turned out delicious to the tenth power, but also required a LOT of time, including prep the night before and a good amount of work the next day. Not exactly what we intended, given our limited time, but the meal took us right back to France! It was THAT good! While we still do the long prep meals occasionally, the crock pot really shines for us when we need to throw together a quick meal that doesn’t take a long time to make, but tastes like it does take a long time to make. I love my italics. Simple stuff, you know? For example, Steph threw a pork tenderloin and a bottle of TJ’s BBQ sauce in the cooker one day. Literally 1 minute of work – and the pulled pork tasted awesome!

Anyway, last night we trotted out this delight, called African Sweet Potato Stew with Red Beans. This recipe comes from the Cooking Light cookbook, aptly titled, “Cooking Light Slow Cooker.” The combination of sweet potato, spices and peanut butter made this dish really stand out for me. It’s one of a few Cooking Light recipes that actually taste quite rich. It’s easy to make and really really good. Have at it:

• 2 TB olive oil
• 1.5 cups chopped onion
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 4 cups peeled sweet potatos, chopped into one inch cubes
• 1.5 cups cooked red beans
• 1.5 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp grated fresh ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 can diced tomato (drained)
• 1 4.5 ounce can diced green chiles, drained
• 3 tb creamy peanut butter
• 3 tb chopped dry roast peanuts
• lime wedges

1. Heat oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat, add onion and garlic, cook 5 mins

2. Place onion mixture, sweet potato and next 10 ingredients in the crock pot, cover, cook low for 8 hours

3. Spoon 1 cup of the finished broth into a bowl, add the peanut butter, whisk, add back into crock pot, stir.

4. Ladle into individual bowls, add a lime wedge and sprinkle peanuts.

5. Enjoy.