Author: Vegan Irish Stew! Perfect for St. Patrick's Day. Hearty vegetables in a rich, earthy, thick stout beer broth. It's a stick to your ribs kinda stew! This Vegan Irish Stew is just so many good things in a bowl it will make your stomach smile. So dang hearty, I'm pretty much obsessed with the mixture of chunky vegetables in the rich stout based broth. Eeeerrrrrrrrk! ~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, but now Guinness is vegan!! Believe it or not, the people at Guinness announced they changed their 250+ year recipe to make it vegan! Is that a sign of the times or what!?
Back to the broth: The stout beer in this recipe gives the broth rich, thick, and deep earthy tones. The alcohol gets cooked out, and the end result tastes wonderful. Seriously, good things are happening in my kitchen today.
If you don't like Guinness, you can use the handy-dandy Vegaholic app or check out Barnivore online to find a vegan-friendly stout you love.
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 or a soda bread for cleaning up every last bit 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 into chunky pieces because this stew is all about rustic chunks of veggie deliciousness... and beer... but we'll 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.
Common Questions:
Is Guinness vegan friendly?
Yes, Guinness is 100% vegan!! No animal products have been used in its brewing or filtering, or as ingredients since 2018.
What should I serve with stew?
Be sure to make sure the ingredients are vegan but a nice crusty loaf, soda bread, or dinner roll is the perfect companion to a hearty stew.
Bon Appetegan!
Sam Turnbull
(click stars to vote)
Vegan Irish Stew
Servings: (makes about 1.5L)
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Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 ribs celery, chopped
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 - 4 cups vegetable broth
- 1 can (473ml) vegan stout beer
- 3 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
- 2 parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks (optional)
- 8 oz mushrooms, quartered
- 2 ½ cups baby potatoes, halved (or about 2 regular potatoes and cut into chunks)
- ½ cup tomato paste
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground pepper
Instructions
- Please note that some people find this recipe bitter. I love the bitter taste, but if you do not like bitter flavors here are my tips: try using less tomato paste to start, adding more later to taste if desired. Make sure you use a beer you like the flavor of, if you don't like it before it goes in the soup, you won't like it in the soup. You can start with less beer to taste or replace the beer completely with a vegan beefless broth. If you find the finished soup too bitter try adding fat such as 1 - 2 tablespoons olive oil, or vegan butter and some sweetness such as 1 - 2 tablespoons brown or white sugar, agave, or maple syrup.
- 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 enjoy hot. Allow leftovers to cool and store covered in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Notes
Nutrition
⭐ Did You Make This Recipe?
I’d love if you left a rating and comment, it helps others find the recipe and makes my day! 💕Bon appetegan!
Sam.
em says
tastes super good, except it definitely takes a long time for the veggies to get soft. It's been around 2 hours and I'm STILL waiting for the carrots to soften up, been adding stock/water as time goes on because i don't want it to burn. I recommend cutting up the veggies smaller, especially the parsnips/carrots. I was thinking it'd be done around 8:45pm and it's already 10pm and the carrots still aren't soft!!!! Like I said, still tastes amazing, just make sure you plan for a longer cooking time.
Alexandra Colacito says
I say this with love, because I LOVE YOUR RECIPES. Except for one salad dressing (forget which), everything I've made from your blogs has been EXCEPTIONAL. Yours is the cookbook I always recommend to people. THAT SAID, I feel like you need to remove this recipe from your blog. I'm reading all the rave reviews above and have no idea how people loved this. I don't think I did anything wrong, followed the instructions exactly, but the end flavor was way too sweet and unstew-like. The mushrooms were rubbery, and the parsnips tasted like medicine. Even the carrots were bad. I ate some of the potatoes but this is literally the second time in my entire life that I've actually had to throw an entire meal away, in the trash. My husband hated it too. We used Guinness for the beer. I don't want people to try this recipe and then never come back to your blog because everything else is so fantastic. Maybe I'm not Irish enough? Again, trying to be constructive here, with honest feedback!!
Tyler says
True lynx awful DO NOT ADD BEER. I have never done a recipe from your channel and probably won't chance another one. I did this for our family's meatless Monday and was thoroughly embarrassed
Gina Caracci says
Im sorry you had a bad experience with this recipe (which I havent tried yet) but I have tried MANY of Sams recipes and they are amazing. I have only had a few I didnt care for but you can adjust things to your likings. Good luck!
Misha says
Please give her other recipes a try. I haven't tried this recipe yet but have made many of Sam's recipes and they are amazing.
Genevieve says
Perhaps your ingredients were past the expiry, since there is a concentration of flavour from each one specifically? I made this now twice and no issues, in fact it’s delicious!
Lindsay says
Ive made this stew multiple times now w Guinness, but no parsnips and my whole family (3 kids included) LOVE this recipe. If you don’t like the hint of bitter Guinness then don't make Irish stew ♀️ Not sure what people were expecting..
John says
"Irish stew is traditionally a lamb stew made with Guinness stout beer."
Traditional Irish stew is not made with beer.
Angela says
This has the potential to be a lovely stew, if I had used a different beer.
I used a whole can of Guinness & it was so horribly bitter that I added extra sugar (I mean a lot of sugar) & some dollops of vegan butter (Earth Balance), as the fat tones down the bitterness.
Next I also added some mustard powder and a can of diced tomatoes.
Once I played around with it, it was lovely.
I’ll just try a different beer next time I think it definitely has potential - maybe dumplings would be nice too - yummy
Sheryl Meier says
My Irish mother never made Irish stew with beer. I made your recipe and it was good without the beer.
RUTH B PROKESCH says
Hi Sheryl, (and Sam!)
I'm not fussy about the taste of the beer in the stew, so was looking for a way to make it without the beer. Did you just leave it out?
What did you use to replace the beer?
Did you adjust the recipe in any way?
I love the chunkiness of this recipe with the perfect stew vegetables, so I want to make it again. Just a bit different!
Thank you,
Ruth
Sheryl Meier says
I used more vegetable broth instead of the beer.
CML says
I am English and love this recipe. I change it slightly by cooking it in the oven on low for an hour then adding dumplings.
It tastes amazing! Thanks for the recipe.
KLoveless says
Just made this and I think it turned out really good. I found out that I am not a stout beer fan so I will use something different next time. I might try making it with Marsala wine or sherry. Anyway, fairly easy to make. Took me longer to cut everything up and definitely needs more time to cook, but that’s no biggie.
Kim says
Thick and hearty! The beer that I used had a kind of weird flavor (campfire stout) so I think it would taste better with something a bit milder. Regardless, it was flavorful and satisfying. I forgot to buy parsnips so just added two extra carrots. Mine took an extra 5-10 minutes to cook but maybe I just cut my veggie chunks pretty big!
Bob says
This is delicious. My daughter ran a cafe in Ballyvaughn, she requested I make a pot just for her. I used North Coast Brewery's Old No. 38 and added some seitan chunks I prepared regular beef style. My friend said she expected it to be meatier (my seitan is popular, great texture), my daughter pointed out that the Irish folk at one time had no meat, just root veggies. My favorite stew!!!
Lois says
Bob,
Would you be willing to share your Seitan recipe?
Sada says
We've made this recipe many times, and will continue to do so. It is a bit bitter, but we love that aspect of this recipe. Once again, thanks Sam for a great recipe!
Pelagia says
WOW! We have made this recipe many, many times now, and it is a hit each time! You can crumble frozen/uncooked Impossible burger into it as it cooks, and it comes out tasting like a hearty beef stew - AMAZING! Thanks Sam, for this wonderful recipe!
Sam Turnbull says
Great idea!! So happy you love it, Pelagia 🙂
Lynn says
I made this with gluten free flour and a gluten free beer (red bridge). I think because I used gluten free flour it got a little too thick so I added an extra 1 1/2 cups of vegetable broth. Also the gluten free beer probably wasn’t as bitter so I added half of the brown sugar. I doubled the amount of mushrooms and added a couple of sprigs of rosemary. It turned out really delicious! Thanks for the recipe.
Ashley Kenyeres says
I wanted to love this, but it was just alright for my tastebuds. As some have said, it turned out a bit bitter - maybe I just don't like stout. I boiled it off for awhile but it remained a little bitter still. If I made this again, I'd maybe halve the amount of Guiness, or leave it out for just more of a rustic veggie stew without the Irish kick to it. My boyfriend really liked it though! I added some chunks of homemade seitan as well.
Everything else I have tried from this site has been nothing short of fantastic! Thanks Sam!
Nicole Walberg says
Same here. I wanted to love it (like every other recipe I've made from this site], but it was too bitter. Maybe less Guinness might be the key?
Jodie Fraser says
Hello! I just made this tonight, I added in some green beans and vegan "beef" tvp chunks. Fantastic, and my kitchen smells amazing. Thank you, this will definitely be a regular meal here. 🙂
Gretchen says
This stew was absolutely delicious! I followed the recipe almost exactly (minor changes with the amount of veggies) and, since I couldn't find Guiness, went for a black beer (Störtebeker Schwarzbier), hoping it would work as well. And it did! Everyone loved it, even my through and though carnivore father in law 😀 Thank you for your great work and congratulations to your 100k! Best wishes from Germany 🙂
Sam Turnbull says
WOnderful! SO happy you loved it, Gretchen 🙂
Rachel Berry-Huff says
I found this recipe on Instagram and realized I had all the ingredients (subbed Modelo Especial + a splash of red wine for the stout), and I just finished making it. SO GOOD! Thank you!!!
(Next time I will double the ingredients that contribute to the broth-y part because it's so good.)
Sam Turnbull says
Wonderful! So happy you loved it, Rachel 🙂
Lisa says
Love it!!! However, I also found it was pretty bitter but I think I found the solution!! I add molasses to it, and it rounded out the flavor without the bitter after taste!! I would say I added 4 tablespoons but I would start slow and build up to what flavor you are looking for out of the stew. 🙂
Sam Turnbull says
Glad you enjoyed!
Lisa says
My stew ended up being bitter as well. I researched how to fix it - there’s actually discussion boards about it - and the trick is to boil (not simmer) the alcohol out of the beer. Many recipes I looked at deglaze with beer, not broth, and being it up to a rolling boil for several minutes before continuing. I stained the veggies and brought the broth to a rolling boil for several minutes, dropped it to a simmer, and continued smelling and tasting it until the bitterness dissipated. Add water if you need to keep preferred consistency. I ended up with a pretty tasty stew in the end, but it added hours of work in the execution.
Regina says
I can’t find any parsnips, any substitution? Sweet potatoes maybe?
GinxAZ says
I would try adding more carrots, as parsnips are very similar, with a milder flavor.
Regina says
Thanks!
Sam Turnbull says
Sweet potatoes would be nice or you could just skip them. Enjoy!
Erin McNamara says
I have a question...I'd love to make this but in reading the comments you said if you don't like the beer straight to drink you wouldn't like it in the stew. I don't like beer so would you suggest using a red wine instead?
GinxAZ says
Try adding more vegetable broth instead. But the beer is what makes the flavor!
Cami says
I’ve made this with balsamic vinegar (just a splash to taste preference) in lieu of beer as we are GF and it turns out great! Super tasty! Red wine is nice too. Just start with a little so you don’t go overboard.
Scooter McElroy says
Looks delicious! i am definitely going to try it.
however, PETA says that Guinness is now vegan!
https://www.peta.org/living/food/my-goodness-my-guinness-goes-vegan/
Do you agree? Irish is the king of stew so how could i not use Guinness?!
Sam Turnbull says
It sure is!
Gary perkins says
I did not think guinness in cans was vegan!!!!
Gina Bisaillon says
You wouldn’t object if I added some seitan, would you?
Sam Turnbull says
Never!