Make this southwest sweet potato stew in the pressure cooker or slow cooker for a warm winter dinner!
It’s cold. It’s not the good kind of cold, like the “yay, it’s boot season!” kind of cold. It’s the I-can’t-feel-my-earlobes kind of cold. It is BAD cold. Cruel cold. It’s the Royals losing in the bottom of the 9th in Game 7 of the World Series kind of cruel cold.
So all I want to do is:
- sit on the couch with a mug o’ hot something,
- perpetrate some snuggles, and
- eat Southwest Sweet Potato Stew.
Not necessarily in that order.
This stew is smoky, hearty, and the spices add a smoky touch of extra heat to get you warmed up for snuggle time. Am I sounding like a creeper?
I’m ok with that.
Because I made this stew in my handy-dandy pressure cooker (the most amazing tool EVER), all the moving parts came together easily and quickly.
If you choose to make it in the slow cooker instead, you’d probably want to roast the sweet potatoes separately and add them right before you serve so they don’t get mushy. 6 hours on high OR 8 hours on low should do it.
- For the meat
- 1 lb. beef stew meat
- 2 Tbs. cooking fat (I used ghee)
- Salt & pepper to season
- For the stew veggies
- 1 large sweet potato, chopped into 1/2″ chunks
- 1 jalapeńo pepper, sliced into thirds and carefully seeded (as in, use gloves and DON’T touch your eyes) OR if you’re brave you can keep the seeds. Either way, don’t touch your eyes.
- 3 whole cloves of peeled garlic
- 1 Tbs. cooking fat (I used ghee)
- 1 tsp. smoked paprika
- For the stew base
- 1/2 large yellow onion, chopped
- 1 14.5 oz (approx) can crushed tomatoes
- 3-4 cups beef, chicken or veggie broth (depending on how liquid-y you like your stew)
- 1 tsp. oregano
- 1 tsp. cumin
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
- 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (or more if you’re brave)
- Juice from 1/2 lime
- For garnish:
- Shredded green cabbage
- Juice from 1/2 lime
- Preheat the oven to 400°.
- While oven is preheating, liberally season all sides of the stew meat with salt & pepper.
- Heat a skillet on the stove to medium-high with 1 Tbs. of cooking fat.
- Once the skillet is heated, add the stew meat to sear on all sides. (Don’t crowd the meat; make sure there’s a few inches of space between each piece so they sear and don’t steam. Sear in batches if needed.)
- Set seared meat aside.
- Toss the sweet potato chunks, jalapeńo, and garlic in 1 Tbs. cooking fat (melted, obviously) and smoked paprika.
- Spread veggies across a baking sheet. They’ll all roast together. (Snuggling, remember?)
- Roast veggies at 400° for 30 – 40 minutes.
- Combine chopped onion, crushed tomatoes, broth, oregano, cumin, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and lime juice in your pressure cooker and give it a good stir. (If you want to blend it super well, use your [url href=”http://amzn.to/1zqlQR6″ target=”_blank”][u]immersion blender[/u][/url].)
- Add the seared stew meat to the pressure cooker.
- Cook for 12 minutes with the pressure regulator rocking slowly (that’s medium-high) then cool the cooker at once (according to manufacturer’s instructions).
- When the veggies are done roasting and the pressure cooker has cooled, chop up the jalapeńo and garlic and add them, along with the sweet potatoes, to the stew.
- You’re finally done. Top with shredded cabbage and a squeeze of lime. Eat.
Enjoy, and thanks for reading!
3 Responses
I just made this (sans onions, and used regular tomato sauce), and OMG. It is one of the best things I’ve ever tasted. I’m totally making this more often! I seriously want to eat the whole pot…but I have to make myself save some for lunch, lol! Even my sweet potato hating husband likes it!
This looks delicious! I can’t wait to try this on my family as getting them to eat the appropriate amount of veggies is difficult. I may add in some radicchio to sneak in another superfood, bit otherwise I don’t plan to change a thing. Thanks again for sharing!
Thank you for sharing this recipe!!! I save all kinds of recipes allllll the time, but this one is a KEEPER! I used venison, but still was absolutely scrumptous. Ya’ll might want to watch the cayenne) I even tossed 2 cups of shredded cabbage into the P.C. and yummm!