Alison Roman’s #TheStew cleared grocery store shelves in early 2019, and people are still making it weekly years later — because it works every time.
The recipe is a spiced chickpea stew with coconut milk, turmeric, and wilted greens. Total pantry cost: about $12 for six servings. The magic is in one technique Roman built the whole dish around: crushing half the chickpeas into the spiced coconut milk to thicken the stew from the inside out.
The crushing step is non-negotiable. It’s what separates this from ordinary chickpea soup.
How #TheStew Became #TheStew
Roman was a relatively new NYT Cooking contributor when she published the recipe in late 2018. It was a straightforward pantry recipe — built entirely from shelf-stable ingredients most cooks might already have. Within weeks, #TheStew was blowing up on Instagram. She reposted people’s photos to her own Story, which fed the loop. By January 2019, grocery stores were running short on coconut milk and chickpeas. Roman told reporters she couldn’t fully explain it: the stew “was still a mystery to her.”
What isn’t a mystery is why people kept making it: genuinely delicious, ready in under an hour, cheap per serving, and infinitely adaptable to whatever greens you have.
The Technique: Why You Crush the Chickpeas
Most chickpea soups are thin — the broth stays watery because chickpeas don’t release their starch into liquid the way pasta or potatoes do. Roman’s solution: after cooking the chickpeas in spiced oil for a few minutes, you crush roughly half of them against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. The broken chickpeas release their starch directly into the coconut milk and broth, thickening the whole stew into something closer to a sauce — velvety, deeply golden from the turmeric, with a real heat from the red pepper flakes.
Leave the other half of the chickpeas whole. The texture contrast between the creamy stew base and the intact chickpeas is the point.
Why Full-Fat Coconut Milk Only
This is Roman’s most consistent note and the one people most often ignore. Full-fat coconut milk has enough fat content to emulsify with the chickpea starch and olive oil into a smooth, silky broth. Light coconut milk doesn’t — the stew comes out thin and watery. If you want to cut calories, replace one of the two cans with vegetable broth rather than substituting light for full-fat across the board.
Greens
Swiss chard is the standard and works beautifully — leaves wilt in about 3 minutes, even the thinner stems are edible. Kale takes 4–5 minutes and has a more assertive bitterness that works well against the coconut fat. Collard greens hold up best of all, adding real texture rather than soft ribbons. Spinach wilts in under 2 minutes and nearly dissolves into the stew — fine if that’s what you want, but the dish loses its body.
Whatever you use: remove only the thickest stems, tear the leaves into roughly 2-inch pieces, and add them in the last 5 minutes so they don’t overcook.
Serving
Fresh mint is what makes the finished bowl work. The brightness cuts the coconut fat and the heat from the pepper flakes. Use at least half a cup per batch, scattered generously at the table. Yogurt alongside adds a cool, tangy counterpoint. Flatbread or rice make it a full meal; the stew is also excellent on its own as a thick soup.
