Sunday, January 9, 2011

Yam and Sweet Potato Crock Pot Stew! Yep you guessed it...It's Vegan!

I had purchased yams and sweet potatoes on my weekly shopping day, really not knowing what I was going to make with them.  When Sunday rolled around, we had more kid sporting events and I knew it needed to be a crock pot meal.  But, what should I make?  This little ensemble of flavors are sure to get your taste buds watering!

1 large sweet onion, coarsely diced
4 large carrots, coarsely diced
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup white wine
2 yams, diced 1 inch chunks
1 sweet potato, diced 1 inch chunks
1/2 can coconut milk
1/4 cup mixed jumbo raisins
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
2 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup Tibetan Goji berries, optional
1/4 cup shelled peanuts, optional

Method

1) Saute the onions and carrots in peanut oil until softened, 8 minutes.  Add cinnamon and nutmeg and stir for a couple of minutes then pour the ingredients into a crock pot.  Bring the pan back to the stove and deglaze the pan with the wine.  Cook down to 1 tablespoon and pour over the onion and carrot crock pot mixture. 
2) Next, place the diced yams, sweet potato, coconut milk, raisins, curry powder, cayenne pepper and vegetable broth in the crock pot and stir to mix well.  Place the temprature on high and allow to cook for 4 hours.  (Do Not Over Cook)
3) 20 minutes prior to the stew being finished add the Goji berries and shelled peanuts, if using.  Serve!


2 comments:

  1. What is difference between Yam and Sweet Potato? I thought it was two names for the same thing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good Question! Yams and Sweet Potatoes are similar in many ways and therefore often get confused with one another. But, they are from different plant species. Yams contain more natural sugar and have a higher moisture content. But, sweet potatoes are richer in vitamins A and C. To make matters more confusing it's hard to know for sure what you are buying in the store because there are over 150 species of yams grown throughout the world. And typically in the southern part of the United States, sweet potatoes are often called Yams...ugh! You would think this would be something we could figure out. But, when all else fails I tend to mix the two when buying. This way I get the vitamin content along with moisture content when cooking or baking them.

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