All morning I have been talking to my pooch, Chickpea in an Irish accent… and I’ve learned that I’m atrociously bad at speaking in an Irish accent. Note to self: never attempt Irish accent in the company of anyone, ever. Period.
Good thing #1: this is a written post, so you don’t have to listen to any of that.
More good things: Good things are happening in my kitchen today, so many GOOD THINGS! This Vegan Irish Stew is just so many good things. So dang hearty, it’s a stick to your ribs kinda stew. I’m pretty much obsessed with the mixture of chunky vegetables in the rich stout based broth. EEeeerrrrrrrrk! (Record scratch). I’m sorry, did I say stout, as in beer? Yes, yes I did.
Irish stew is traditionally a lamb stew made with Guinness stout beer. Obviously, lamb isn’t vegan, and Guinness isn’t vegan… yet. Believe it or not, the people at Guinness announced they are changing their 250+ year recipe to make it vegan! Is that a sign of the times or what!? (Although, if you live in Australia, it’s already vegan down there).
Back to broth. The stout beer in this recipe gives the broth the rich, thick, and deep earthy tones. The alcohol gets cooked out, and the end result doesn’t really taste like beer anymore (this is coming from someone who isn’t a big stout fan), it just tastes of awesomeness. Seriously tho. Good things are happening in my kitchen today.
As Guinness isn’t vegan yet, I took my handy-dandy Vegaholic app to the store, (you could alternatively check out Barnivore online), and found myself Sawdust City Brewing Co.’s Skinny Dipping Stout, which is totally vegan-friendly. Woot! But any vegan stout you find will do just fine.
This vegan Irish stew is the perfect way to celebrate St. Patrick’s day, or really any day that you want a warm rich stew. Serve it with a crusty loaf of bread for cleaning up every last bite of broth, and you have yourself one mighty fine meal! It’s a good thing. 😉
To make Vegan Irish Stew: Gather up all your hearty veggie goodness. Omnomnom.
Chop up all the veggies. Leave them all sorts of chunky because this stew is all about rustic chunks of veggie deliciousness… and beer… but we will get to that shortly.
Sauté the celery, onion, and garlic in the olive oil, until the onion becomes translucent and just begin to brown. Now sprinkle in the flour. Stir well to coat the veggies, and cook for another minute to heat up the flour. Add the vegetable broth, and scrape the bottom of the pan with your spoon to get any bits off the bottom.
Add in all of the remaining veggies, tomato paste, spices, and the beer! (See, I told you we would get to that part). It will probably foam and do beer-like things, but that’s ok, the bubbles and alcohol will cook right out.
Bring to a simmer and cook for about 10 – 15 minutes until the veggies are fork-tender, but not mushy. The stew will be very thick. If you prefer a thinner stew, feel free to thin it out to taste with 1 to 2 more cups of vegetable broth.
- 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- 2 Stalks of Celery, chopped
- 1 Yellow Onion, chopped
- 4 Cloves Garlic, minced
- ¼ Cup All-Purpose Flour
- 2 to 4 Cups Vegetable Broth
- 1 473ml Can Vegan Stout Beer (I used Sawdust City Brewing Co Skinny Dippin' Stout)
- 3 Carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
- 2 Parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks
- 8 oz Mushrooms, quartered
- 2½ Cups Baby Potatoes, halved (or about 2 regular potatoes and cut into chunks)
- ½ Cup Tomato Paste
- 2 Bay Leaves
- 1 Teaspoon Dried Thyme
- 2 Teaspoons Brown Sugar
- ¾ Teaspoon Salt
- ½ Teaspoon Ground Pepper
- Heat a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil, and when hot add in the celery, onion, and garlic. Sauté until the onion becomes translucent and just begins to
brown, about 5 minutes. - Sprinkle in the flour. Stir well to coat the veggies, and cook for another minute to heat up the flour. Add 2 cups of vegetable broth, and scrape the bottom of the pan with your spoon to get any bits off the bottom.
- Add in the beer, all of the remaining veggies, tomato paste, and spices. The beer will foam up, but that’s ok, the bubbles and alcohol will cook right out. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 – 15 minutes until the veggies are fork-tender, but not mushy. The stew will be very thick! If you prefer a thinner stew, feel free to thin it out to taste with 1 to 2 more cups of vegetable broth. Remove bay leaves before serving, and serve hot.
Bon Appetegan!
Sam.
This stew was a big hit. My 4 year old had 2 bowls. We used herb French bread to soak up the rest of the sauce. Your recipes are making our journey to vegan so easy. Thank you
Yay! So happy you loved it, and that I am helping to make going vegan easier! 😀
My partner is Irish and this is the first time i made a stew since going vegan a few months ago. I left out the parsnips just because we didn’t have any and Im not the biggest fan of them. Only thing I’d change is quite a bit less tomato paste and let it cook for a lot longer than the recipe says, I’d say at least an hour if not longer to get that real stew feeling. Other than that we loved it 🙂
Yay! So happy you enjoyed it, Carina!
This recipe was AMAZING! ❤️
Yay! So happy you loved it, Suzanne 🙂
Hi! Will this work in a crock pot ??? Thanks 🙂
Hi Jenny, I don’t have a crockpot so I am not 100% sure, but I can’t see why it wouldn’t. Enjoy!
I just finished making this, very yummy!! I cooked it for a lot longer, probably an hour and the veges were still nice and firm. The only thing I think I’ll change for next time is less tomato paste and less stout (although I think mine was a dark stout). I’ve never cooked using beer before so didn’t know what to expect. Very pleased to have stumbled across such a great recipes site. Also currently cooking up a pot of the creamy vegan potato soup, very excited to have a taste. I’m an omnivore but I love having vegetarian dishes.
Woohoo! Glad you enjoyed the recipe, Feona. Extra glad that you love enjoying vegetarian dishes! Welcome to my blog 🙂
Late for St.Paddy’s Day, but honoring my Irish heritage, made this stew for dinner last night. Super simple and came together quickly!! Love that about your recipes, Sam! The color of this stew is incredibly deep and rich. The flavour was amazing! We loved it. In future, I’d probably skip the parsnips, they were good, but not my fave flavour … just a personal taste preference. This stew is just sooooo good. Will keep this recipe handy for sure. Thanks Sam… you make me a good cook!
Yay! So happy you loved yet another recipe of mine, Srivani 🙂 For sure, parsnips are not for everyone so feel free to skip and maybe replace with a couple more potatoes and another carrot. 🙂
Can’t wait to make this Sam! Stew is the ultimate comfort food for me. I used to have it out of a can as a kid haha! But this one is much better (and animal free!). I love that you added the beer 🙂
Aww thanks, Kim! I hope you love it as much as I enjoyed making it 🙂
I made the vegan Irish stew tonight. Had to substitute a gluten free beer and couldn’t find astout do I used as dark a gluten free as I could find..OMG..delish!
Anna I made the buffalo cauliflower a few nights ago. So good!
Woohoo! I’m so happy you loved both the stew and the buffalo cauliflower 🙂
Wow, this sounds sooo yummy! I can’t wait to try it. Thank you for all of your great recipes. 🙂
Yay! I hope you enjoy it. My pleasure 🙂
Very tasty! I cooked it for quite a bit longer than written (maybe 45 minutes in all, but my vegetable chunks were pretty large) and added some Yves veggie beef tenders in the last few minutes of cooking. I worried about the amount of tomato paste but found I needed to use all of it to balance the beer.
This is even better the next day, and my carnivore husband really liked it too.
Woohoo!! So glad you enjoyed it so much 🙂
Okay, this stew was sooooo good. UGH. I’ve never cooked with beer before and my eyes have now been opened! We aren’t big parsnip fans so we substituted cauliflower which was just as yum. Five stars!!!
Woohoo!! So happy you loved it Claire, and cauliflower would be a great sub 🙂
I found this website not because I am vegan (I’m vegetarian) But because I am always looking for creative ways people use fillo as we are a fillo dough manufacturer. I found this recipe last week and decided to try it on St Patty’s day for my family. It was truly amazing. Over 5 stars. We can honestly say that the meat was not missed, and it was full of flavor and texture. Thanks Sam for another great one. Let me know when you come up with a vegan fillo dish, we’d love to feature it on OUR blog.
-l
So very happy you enjoyed it so much!! I will keep you in mind if any fillo recipes come up 🙂
Made this tonight for dinner and it was EPIC!!! This was my first time ever being brave enough to cook with beer and it was better than I could’ve imagined! I added peas and a side of cooked cabbage… just blew my mind! Sam I am continually impressed by your recipes, thank you for keeping things so interesting and delicious!
Woohoo!!! Can’t get much better of a review than EPIC! Thanks so much, Nic. I’m so thrilled you love my recipes so much 🙂
This was the ‘perfect’ Irish stew [veganized]. Thank You!
8noticedd a comment suggesting too much tomato flavor…think I would have to try it with less to notice the difference. Perfectly thick and anything with beer is YUM.
Woohoo! So happy you loved it!
When you sit before a bowl of perfect stew like this one you are a child again sitting at the table eating mother love. Thank you. Hanne
Awwww that’s lovely! I know just the feeling you are talking about 🙂 So happy you enjoyed it, Johanne!
Girl, I can’t stop having bites of these leftovers every time I open the fridge door. Great recipe. Great blog.
Hahaha! Woohoo!! Thank you so very much! Thrilled you enjoyed the recipe so much 🙂
Excellent Sam! Thank you for my vegan Irish stew tonight. 🙂
You’re most welcome! So happy you loved it, Kristin 🙂
Delicious!! Thank you for the incredible dishes you pop out! I added a dash of liquid smoke that I bought for your vegan bacon, Mmmm! My whole family enjoyed it! XXO
Ooooo! Great idea!! You’re most welcome, it’s my favourite thing to do 🙂
The tomato flavor was over powering for our taste. Took away from the “stew flavor”
Oh that’s too bad. You can always reduce it to taste in the future.
Great stuff Sam! I ended up using a 16oz can of Oatmeal Cream, Buffalo Sweat stout which made the gravy have a bit of a bite, but still really good. My wife even liked it, which she is still a big meat fan. Couldn’t find any parsnips in the area so I used the multi colored carrots in their place. I’ve never made a stew of any kind before, but it came out great! I tend to be a bit slow in the kitchen, so I was also very surprised that I made it in less than an hour. . Thanks for the great recipes, keepem coming!
Woohoo! That sounds fabulous! So happy you and your wife loved it 😀
Beer in a stew? Wowzers! Never would’ve thought of that, but I love how rich and hearty this stew looks and sounds..
It’s a classic with Irish stew! It give a wonderful rich earthy flavour 🙂
Oh thank you for this fabulous recipe Sam. With winter on the way here in Melbourne, Australia, I can’t wait to try this out.
Yay! I hope you love it 🙂
Just made this. Really delicious and authentic flavours but for the sake of me being lazy and wanting this to be a one dish meal, I’d have to figure out how to incorporate protein. Would tempeh be tasty in there, you think?
I am addicted to the tofu bits/crumbles recipe that Sam uses in her BEST VEGAN CHILI. I was already trying to justify using them in this recipe – well because the Irish love lamb and all that – but mostly because I love the darn things. Seriously, I think if you want protein, that’s what I would do.
Haha! Thanks Joanne. Yes that would be a fab idea as well 🙂
All whole plant foods contain protein. So this dish already does contain protein! Woohoo! You can read more about that here. But if you want to add tempeh or tofu, you can totally do that. I would pan fry it first so it doesn’t get mushy in the stew. Enjoy!
Sam- tried it tonite with the tofu crumbles. Wow! Both versions are fabulous- you have really outdone yourself with one!
BTW – you are so right about protein!
Yay! So happy to hear that you loved it so much 🙂 Thanks, Joanne!
There is a recipe for Caldo Verde with mushrooms, an “old-world soup” , published recently by Ellie Krieger, a cookbook author, in the Washington Post. In her version she sauteed mushrooms coated in Spanish smoked paprika to add a meaty smokiness in a plant -based way. I am looking forward to adapting with vegetable broth in replacing the stout.
Making the Vegan Irish Stew for St. Patrick’s Day ! Thanks Sam.
Sounds yum! Enjoy!
MMMMmmmm marvelous! On top o’ the rainbow! Good Gat!
Hahaha 🙂
Wow, this looks delicious! Just in time for out St Patty’s Day dinner party. Do you think I could finish this off with a vegan puff pastry topper? Thanks!
Oooh yes! That sounds delicious! Enjoy 🙂
This looks amazing!
Yay! Thank you, Monica 🙂
This stew is wonderful.
Cal
Thank you, Cal 🙂
Do you have any suggestions for a replacement for the beer?
Deborah, There are any number of dark stouts or porters that will work well. 🙂 Oh, you probably mean that you don’t want to use any beer. Well, you could try some vegan Worcestershire, Tamari sauce, and a little dark Miso. That should provide the umami you get from the beer. However, you will probably need to reduce or eliminate the 3/4 tsp of salt. I’ve made something similar, sans flour and sugar, for years.
Yes, you can replace the beer with a rich broth such as a mushroom broth. You can try amping it up a bit as Cal suggested. Enjoy!