Vegan Irish Stew with Guinness

This hearty stew is our vegan alternative to the traditional Irish beef or lamb and Guinness stew. Get ready to celebrate St Patrick's day like an Irish (a vegan one)!

If you still don't know much about us, three of our six hungry feet are Irish. That counts Astra and half of our toddler Luca who is Spanish too. Our way of celebrating Paddy's day where we live in Mallorca was spending the day out in a local town where many Irish people live. They set up a market, live music and animation for the little ones.

This year is different though and we've been preparing ourselves for Paddy's day at home. That will include a lovely Irish menu: Vegan Irish stew with Guinness served with our homemade Vegan Soda Bread. We'll probably bake some healthy brownies too!

This stew is hearty, rich, packed full of veggies and quite easy to cook. We love making it for Paddy's day but it's such a perfect choice for a cold and rainy day too.

Meat substitute for Vegan or Vegetarian Irish Stew

At first, I thought about making our stew with Seitan but then I realized jackfruit had the perfect texture for hearty stews. In taste, it works like tofu, it will soak all the flavours of your broth.

Jackfruit is an Asian fruit that when it's young, unripe and green it has a neutral taste. You can find it normally canned in Asian supermarkets or online. If this is your first time cooking with jackfruit, don't worry, it's so simple. All you need to do is take the jackfruit out of the can and add it to the stew to cook with the rest of the ingredients.

After cooking, it will be tender and will soak the flavours of the broth.

Other meat alternatives

Seitan. This vegan protein doesn't need much seasoning. You can separate the seitan roughly with your hands to make beef resembling pieces or use a knife to cut the seitan into smaller cubes or pieces.

Tofu. This may be the easiest alternative to find. Tofu is one of our favourite plant-based proteins and we use it really often at home. Simply cut it into small pieces and add it with the rest of the ingredients to the pot.

Mushrooms. Add a mixture of mushrooms and no meat substitute will be needed.

Quorn. You can get different products from this brand to make traditional dishes vegetarian or vegan.

How to cook with Guinness

We've learnt along the way that there is a few tricks when cooking with Guinness. Traditionally, the meat is cooked first in a cast-iron pot which later will be deglazed with the Guinness taking all the sweetness and reducing the bitterness of the beer.

When cooking this Vegan Irish stew, we followed a few tricks to reduce the bitterness of the Guinness and make the stew absolutely delicious.

• Use vegan butter to caramelize the onion and leek.
• Use carrots for natural sweetness.
• Chopping the potatoes into big pieces so you can leave the stew simmering for longer.
• Optional: You can add some brown sugar too.

How to cook Vegan Irish Stew with Guinness Step by Step

1. Prepare and chop your veggies: Onion, leek, garlic, carrots, celery, mushrooms, and potatoes.
2. Add some vegan butter into a cast-iron pot to medium heat temperature. Add the onions and leek and cook for 8-10 minutes until they start to brown. Then add the rest of the veggies, stir and keep cooking for 2-3 more minutes.
3. Open the Jackfruit can, drain and remove excess of water and add into the pot. You can break with your hands or cut with a knife the bigger pieces into smaller bites.
4. Add the Guinness, vegetable broth, fresh thyme and bay leaves. Make sure you mix all the ingredients well and using a wooden spoon scratch the bottom to make sure all the sweetness from the onion incorporates into the broth. Add some cornstarch diluted in water to make the stew thicker.
5. Bring to simmer and leave cooking for 30 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked. Serve and enjoy!

If you tried our recipe, please leave a comment or tag us on Instagram @Sixhungryfeet. We are always happy to see your creations!