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

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What is Irish Stew?
Our Irish Stew is:
Meat substitute for Vegan or Vegetarian Irish Stew
How to cook our Hearty Vegan Irish Stew
Tips to cook with Guinness
Serving Suggestions
FAQ and Tips
Vegan Irish Stew with Guinness
Other Irish recipes for Paddy's day:

What is Irish Stew?

The traditional Irish Stew aka Stobhach Gaelach, is a staple of Irish Cuisine. It's a filling one-pot meal cooked with meat and hearty root vegetables and seasoned with fresh or dried herbs. Irish Stew is normally served with Soda Bread or mashed potatoes.

Our vegan version of this hearty stew is cooked with Heura, a type of vegan protein (you can use your favourite brand for this recipe) and flavoured with Guinness and fresh herbs. This stew is rich, really tasty, packed full of veggies and quite easy to cook. We love making it for Paddy's day or a rainy and cold day when you feel like eating something hearty and yummy.

You can confidently serve this Irish recipe to your family and friends. All meat eaters will love it too!

Our Irish Stew is:

Vegan
Hearty
Family-friendly
Perfect for Paddy's Day
Winter-autumn meal
Easy to make
One-pot meal
Festive

Vegan Irish Stew served with mashed potatoes

Meat substitute for Vegan or Vegetarian Irish Stew

Traditionally, this stew is cooked with lamb or beef. To substitute the meaty part of this dish, we use a vegan protein called "Heura" made in Spain, where we live. It works perfectly as it has the right texture and it can stay cooking for a long time without falling apart.

Other plant-based alternatives

You can add any other plant-based protein alternatives to your vegan stew:

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. Make sure you are using firm tofu for this recipe.

Mushrooms. Adding a mixture of mushrooms is the perfect way to substitute the meat in a Guinness stew. They have a meaty texture and will add a lovely flavour to your meal.

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

Soy curls. Similar to chicken in texture and easy to find, soy curls could make for a great option to add to your stew.

Vegan Irish Stew with Guinness in dutch oven

How to cook our Hearty Vegan Irish Stew

Ingredients

Every time we cook this meal at home we are greatly surprised by the amazing flavours we get from cooking with really simple ingredients. This stew is just the perfect combination of simple ingredients to make a satisfying one-pot meal.

Vegetables. To remember which vegetables go into a proper Irish stew, simply remember the colours of the Irish flag. Onion for the white colour, carrots for the orange colour and leek and celery for the green colour.

Guinness. The star of this meal is the well-known Irish beer: Guinness. You can use bottled or canned Guinness, we prefer using canned beer. You can substitute Guinness with another type of stour beer or even red wine.

Fresh and dried herbs. We use a combination of bay leaves, fresh thyme and fresh rosemary. You can use dried thyme and rosemary and even add other herbs such as sage or fresh parsley.

Vegan protein. We use Heura to make the Irish stew but you can choose a different vegan protein.

Tomato paste. This ingredient will add a fine umami flavour to your stew. Don't leave it out! If you don't have tomato paste, you could use 1 fresh chopped tomato.

Vegan butter or vegetable oil. When we make stews we normally use vegan butter as it delivers a creamier and heartier flavour to your dish but alternatively, you can use oil.

Flour. Used to thicken up the stew.

Step-by-Step Method

Add some vegan butter into a cast-iron pot to medium-high heat temperature. Add the onions and cook for 5-6 minutes until they start to brown. Then add the rest of the veggies, stir, and keep cooking for 6-7 more minutes, until they start caramelizing. To make sure the veggies don't burn or stick at the bottom of the pan, keep stirring while cooking.
Add the vegan protein and herbs, stir, and cook for a few minutes.
Incorporate the tomato paste and flour and stir to combine all the ingredients.
Add the Guinness and vegetable broth. Make sure you mix all the ingredients well and using a wooden spoon scratch the bottom to make sure all the sweetness from the caramelized vegetables incorporates into the broth. Bring to a simmer, add the panela sugar or sweetener, and cook for an hour. Season with salt and black pepper, serve with bread or mashed potatoes, and enjoy!

Tips to cook with Guinness

We've learned along the way that there is a few tricks when cooking with stout beer. Using too much Guinness or not simmering the stew for a long enough time may result in a meal with a bitter taste.

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 stew, we followed a few tricks to reduce the bitterness of the Guinness and make the stew absolutely delicious.

Cook the vegetables at a high temperature, making sure they caramelize. You will have to constantly stir the veggies for this step to ensure that they don't burn. Once you add the Guinness, deglaze your pot taking all the sweetness from the caramelized veggies.
Add the right amount of Guinness. Many recipes call for a can of Guinness. We've tried this recipe many times to make sure we love the flavours and a can of Guinness is definitely too much. You can add a whole can of Guinness if you will be cooking your stew for over two hours, but that's just too long for us.
Once all the ingredients are in the pot, leave the stew simmering for an hour. You can leave the stew cooking for longer, but using plant-based protein, an hour will be enough for all the ingredients to be perfectly cooked.
Add a sweetener. We add just a teaspoon of panela sugar, and it's enough to our taste.

Serving Suggestions

Guinness beer Stew is such a hearty meal that is normally served as a main and only dish. At home, while we leave the stew simmering, we prepare some Irish soda bread, mashed potatoes or Colcannon, which is a traditional Irish recipe that consists of a potato and cabbage mash. The Spruce Eats have a great Vegan Colcannon recipe. Both are great side dishes to serve with this comfort meal.

Another type of crusty bread, steamed veggies, roasted root vegetables, or simply a glass of wine are great additions to this delicious one-pot meal.

If you are looking for the perfect meal to serve for Paddy's day or simply a chilli day, our Irish Stew recipe is such a great choice.

You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container for 2-3 days.

FAQ and Tips

Is Guinness vegan?

Some years ago Guinness wasn't vegan as it was made using isinglass but nowadays we are happy to tell you that Guinness is vegan.

Can I substitute the Guinness?

You can use another type of stout beer, ale, or use red wine instead. Another option is to add more vegetable stock.

What is vegan protein?

Vegan proteins are plant-based ingredients that provide a high source of protein such as tofu, edamame, seitan, seeds, nuts, etc.

Where can I find Heura?

If you are living in Spain, France, England, or the Netherlands, you can already find Heura in most big supermarkets but they are expanding quickly so hopefully, you can find them in other countries soon!

Vegan Irish Stew with carrot, mashed potatoes and vegan protein

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