Vegan Irish Stew is perfect for St. Patrick’s Day. Chunky vegetables in a rich, earthy, thick Guinness broth. This Vegan Irish Stew is just so many good things in a bowl!
Irish stew is traditionally a lamb stew made with Guinness. 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!?
I know Guinness is a strong taste and not everyone likes it, I personally love it! The Guinness 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 stout anymore, it just tastes of awesomeness.
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 sauce.
TO MAKE VEGAN IRISH STEW:
Chop up all the veggies into chunky pieces because this stew is all about rustic chunks of veggie deliciousness… and Guinness… but we’ll get to that shortly.
Sauté the celery, onion, leek 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, worchester sauce, spices, and the Guinness! It will probably foam and do beer-like things, but the bubbles and alcohol will cook right out.
Bring to a simmer and cook for about 15 – 20 minutes until the veggies are fork-tender, but not mushy. Add in the peas for just the last 5 minutes so they don’t overcook. 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.
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.
Vegans might have had to wait for many years for Guinness to finally stop using isinglass which is a fish product in their refining process, but they have. And now we can make all the Irish Guinness stew we want!
It adds deep savory notes and hints of bitter that contrast the buttery potatoes and sweetness of the carrots.
What goes into an Irish stew?
Well it can’t be Irish without potatoes for one!
It’s common to include other root vegetables as well, and I like carrots and turnip for much needed earthy sweetness they bring to the stew. Parsnips are good too.
You can use whatever mix of vegetables you prefer but do include potatoes as they make it a full meal with no sides needed.
Mushrooms would be good to give it a meaty feel or you can add in seitan peices or any meat replacement, it’s a very versatile recipe!
Onion and garlic make up the aromatic base of the stew, with bay leaves and thyme as the spices.
Flour is used to thicken the brown and create that thick glossy broth to cling to the main ingredients.
For the broth, use vegetable broth which can be from a stock cube. Almost half of the liquid comes from stout. Guinness is the most popular stout, and a great choice for this stew!
To add extra savory notes and balance the stew out with some sweetness, I add tomato paste, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Most Worcestershire sauces contain anchovies, so make sure to pick up a vegan one!
If you reheat leftovers you’ll likely need to add some extra stock to thin. And you can definitely add stock as you like to get to your desired consistency. But it does absorb liquid as it sits and so a splash or two of stock to reheat is ideal!
Like most stews this does magically somehow manage to get even better as it sits, so leftovers are even better the next day.
You can always double the recipe for extra leftovers, or to feed a crowd! Leftovers will also freeze quite nicely!
Did you make this recipe? Take a pic and share it on Instagram with the hashtag #aveggiecooks and tag @aveggiecooks__. I would love to see it!
Vegan Irish Stew
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
- 2 Sticks Celery chopped
- 1 Leek chopped
- 1 Onion chopped
- 4 Cloves Garlic crushed
- 2 Tablespoons Flour
- 500ml /1 pint Vegetable Stock
- 1 Can (473ml) Guinness
- 3 Carrots chopped
- 1 small Turnip chopped
- 4 medium Potatoes cut into chunks
- 3 Tablespoons Tomato Puree
- 2 Bay Leaves
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
- 2 tablespoons Brown Sugar
- 2 teaspoons Dried Thyme
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ½ teaspoon Pepper
Instructions
- Heat a large heavy bottom pan over medium high heat.
- Add oil and saute celery, onion, leeks and garlic for about 5 minutes until onion lightly browned.
- Sprinkle in the flour. Stir well to coat the vegetables and fry for few minutes to cook the flour.
- Add the stock and scrape bottom of pan to remove any bits on the bottom.
- Add in the Guinness and all the remaining ingredients. The stout will foam up but the alcohol will cook out.
- Bring to a simmer and cook gently for 15 to 20 minutes until the vegetables are tender but not mushy.
- The stew will be very thick, you can make it thinner with more stock if you prefer.
- Remove the bay leaves, check the seasoning and serve hot.
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