This easy vegan black bean stew is the perfect fall and winter comfort food dish. Simple, filling, and full of plant based nutrients!
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This simple and easy vegan black bean stew is packed full of flavor and makes you feel like you have a warm hug with every single bite.
Often times people feel like they can’t have both a flavorful meal and a healthy one, but we are here to show you that you can!
This completely homemade black bean stew with sweet potatoes is made in just one pot.
Why You’ll Love Vegan Black Bean Stew
- Easy: While this dish does take a bit of time to cook, the recipe itself is super easy to make and the waiting for the flavors to come together and the sweet potatoes to cook will be the hardest part of the whole dish.
- One Pot: We all love a one pot meal. Not only is the vegan stew recipe easy, but it’s completely made in one pot so you don’t even have a big mess to clean up at the end either! It’s a win win!
- Versatile: One of our favorite parts about the whole dish is that it’s super versatile.
- You can replace the sweet potatoes with another hearty vegetables like butternut squash or pumpkin. You can also switch out the black beans for another protein like chickpeas, black eyed peas, or lentils!
- You can also add even more nutrients by add in some greens like kale or spinach towards the end of the dish.
Black Bean Stew Ingredients
Gather your ingredients!
Below are notes about the ingredients before we get into the full recipe located lower in this post on how to make vegan stew:
- onions and garlic – These are our aromatics and the base to our dish. We start the flavor right away by adding these at the beginning. We are using a red onion in the photo; however, you can use any color onion for this particular dish
- black beans – our protein of choice is black beans for the stew. They are packed full of nutrients and the texture is delicious when cooked in with these flavors
- sweet potatoes – are great at adding a filling component to the dish but also a different texture when combined with all the other ingredients
- coconut milk – we are making this stew with coconut milk in order to provide a creamy element to the dish instead of just stock or water. We are using full fat canned coconut milk to almost mimic a heavy cream consistency
- vegetable stock – We need a bit more liquid to the dish and a low sodium vegetable stock works great to add some flavor and that liquid we need
- spices – we are choosing salt, fresh thyme, smoked paprika, cumin, chili powder, onion powder to add more flavor to the dish and really bring it all together
- sriracha – for a bit of a spicy element to the dish, we are adding some sriracha, but it is optional
How to make Vegan Black Beans stew
To start, you’ll want to heat up some oil in a high walled large pot or skillet. Once heated, add in your onions and salt and stir with a wooden spoon often until translucent and lightly caramelized. This will take you about 6 to 8 minutes. Then add in garlic and thyme and cook for another minute.
Then, add in your black beans, sweet potatoes, and spices. And stir that together well.
Next, you’re going to add in coconut milk, vegetable stock and sriracha (if adding). Work to scrape off any browning at the bottom of your pot so all of those flavors get incorporated into the dish.
Without adjusting the heat, let mixture come to a simmer, cover with a lid and cook until sweet potatoes are fork tender, stirring every few minutes. This will take about 30 to 35 minutes.
How to serve Vegan Stew
Serve warm with fresh herbs sprinkled over with rice or quinoa, with mashed potatoes, or just bread on the side. Enjoy!
Sweet Potato Black Bean Stew substitutions & variations
- black beans – if you wanted to switch it up, try pinto or kidney beans, but you could also do chickpeas or white beans or even lentils. Lentils could also be used as an addition with the black beans instead of just a replacement too
- sweet potatoes – you can replace sweet potatoes in this stew with something like butternut squash or cubed pumpkin chunks as well.
- coconut milk – you can use another carton non-dairy milk that is creamier like soy milk or extra creamy oat milk. Be mindful that you could alter the flavor some and that with carton milks, you’ll need to reduce a bit longer
- vegetable stock – you could use water, but you will take away from some of the flavor
- spices – we wouldn’t recommend too many changes to this dish, but if you don’t have smoked paprika, you can use regular. It does add a smoky component to the dish though so if you still want that you could try a bit of liquid smoke.
- sriracha – you could also do some hot sauce instead
Vegan Stew FAQs
The only ingredient that is an allergen is coconut milk. You can replace that with another thick non-dairy milk like soy or extra creamy oat milk. You’ll want to make a slurry if you do this which is explained in the recipe card below.
Yes. Once cooled completely, you can store in an air tight container in the fridge for 3-5 days.
Yes. As long as you have a big enough skillet, you can just double all the ingredients as instructed.
Sort of. Potatoes that are frozen, then thawed and reheated will most often fall apart and give the dish a grainy consistency once heated throughout again.
If you do want to freeze the dish, you can either make without the sweet potatoes, then add them when reheated until cooked through or you can stop the recipe once combined before cooking the potatoes until fork tender, the cool and freeze. When thawed, finish the recipe as instructed.
You can reheat in the microwave or on the stove in a small pot until heated through. You may need to add some stock or non-dairy milk to get the saucy texture back.
Black beans, by themselves, are 100% vegan. They are nutritionally packed with protein, fiber, and a host of other benefits that make them a great addition to any meal.
There are some recipes and/or canned black bean products that include ingredients that make black beans not suitable for vegans. We always recommend check the ingredient label.
What other vegan fall meal ideas could I make?
If you love this easy vegan dinner recipe, you may love even more:
- Vegan Chili Mac and Cheese
- Vegan Instant Pot Tex-Mex Rice
- Vegan Cheesy Hamburger Helper
- Vegan Swedish Meatballs
- One Pot Creamy Vegan Garlic Parmesan Pasta
Pin this vegan black bean stew for later!
More recipes to try
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🥳 Get the Full Recipe
Sweet Potato Black Bean Stew
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium onion, diced (any color works)
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 cloves garlic
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 15.5oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed (880g)
- 3 cups sweet potatoes, cubed (400g)
- 1 ½ tablespoon smoked paprika
- 1 ½ teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 1 13.5oz can full fat coconut milk (400mL)
- ½ cup vegetable stock (110mL)
- 2 tablespoon sriracha, more or less to taste
Side Options
- cooked brown rice or quinoa
- mashed potatoes
- baguette
Instructions
- In a large skillet or pot with high walls over medium heat, add oil to heat up. Add onions and stir with a wooden spoon. Then sprinkle salt over onions and stir every few minutes. Allow onions to cook until translucent, browning and lightly caramelized. About 6 – 8 mins. Then stir in garlic and thyme and cook for and additional minute.
- Next add in black beans, sweet potatoes, smoked paprika, cumin, chili powder and onion powder. Stir together well, then add coconut milk, stock and sriracha (if adding). Scrape any browning and seasoning at the bottom to incorporate the flavors into the dish.
- Without adjusting the heat, let mixture come to a simmer. Cover with a lid and cook until sweet potatoes are fork tender, stirring periodically (about 30 – 35 minutes).
- Serve warm with fresh herbs sprinkled over with rice, mashed potatoes, etc. on the side. Enjoy!
This was absolutely so delicious. I will be making it again over and over!
This is amazing to hear! Thank you so much!
AMAZING!! I am not vegan or vegetarian, but do cook and eat vegetarian/vegan meals often. This one comes together effortlessly and tastes amazing. The only thing I changed was one can of pinto beans because I only had one can of black-and it was still amazing.
Thank you so much! We’re thrilled you enjoyed the recipe so much!
Hello! Thank you for this recipe! This looks very yummy. Question: does it have much of a coconut flavor? Thank you!
I don’t think you can taste it at all!
I used the recipe as a sort of base. And the final product was delicious! For the changes I used only chicken broth, added a bell pepper, used cornstarch to thicken the liquid, used dried thyme, and increased the seasonings a little. The sriracha really pulls it all together! Thank you for the recipe!
Thank you so much for using our recipe as the base for your own. Part of the joy of the kitchen is making recipes your own so we’re happy to hear that it came out to your liking!
Where do I start, I owe you so much for this. I meal prep this for Mon-Fri on my OMAD diet nearly two weeks a month. It’s helped me lose 23KG as it’s so filling. Only subs I made – Added tumeric and garam masala (purely as I often have some knocking around and it’s versatile) – Added kidney beans in addition to the black beans some weeks for extra volume It’s delicious. Genuinely after eating this at least 20 times now I’ve always made that sound of complete happiness when I take that first bite. Thank you so much for this
That’s amazing! So glad it’s helping you feel satisfied!
I make this every week and the whole family loves it! You’ve made a black bean lover out of me. This recipe is super easy and quick to whip up on a weeknight.
Wow, thanks for such a nice compliment
I didn’t change anything except the following: I mixed light and full fat coconut milk (no strategy, just needed to use the opened can of light coconut milk), used dried thyme instead of fresh, didn’t have sriracha so I used sambal oelek.
at the risk of sounding like I’m overstating how good this was, I will say that I’ve never made a better dish than this, and I’ve been cooking for the past 20+ years. mam could not stop talking about how amazing and delicious it was while she was eating. I can’t stop thinking about it. this will become a staple in my house, and I’m on a mission to make it for every one of my friends. thank you so much, andrew.
OMG wow! Thank you so much for sharing. We’re so happy to hear that this recipe was such a hit with you and your family!
ok, so I made this recipe with two additions: organic corn and organic green lentils. when I played it, I added my mean homemade guac, sliced avocados and green onions. Baaay-bae when I tell you the plate never made it to the table because I ate ALL of it standing at the counter! Listen, y’all don’t miss!!! This website is the reason why I don’t even eat out any more! When I tell y’all everytime I go out to eat I’m thinking,”I can make something better at home.” THIS IS WHY!!
OMG thank you so much! Love the additions you made to the recipe to make it your own! Thank you for all of your kind words and for supporting us.