A Vegan's Irish Stew

Written by McDonald, T.  |  Date 16th of March 2023

Tomorrow is St Patrick's Day! Yay!  With this in mind, why not have an Irish stew?  You can make a big pot of it and treat your party guests to a hearty meal.  After all that celebrating, your guests are bound to be hungry, right? This is such an easy and delightful meal that is a huge winner for everyone.  In addition, you can make some soda bread to go with it.  Moreover, this is a very easy meal to veganise.  You either just leave out the meat or use tofu or a meat substitute.  

Notes

• 150 g mushrooms, sliced (optional)
• You can use mock meat instead of tofu if you want 
• How to make Irish Soda Bread
  

Serves 2

Time - 90 mins

Ingredients

• 100g of tofu or meat substitute
  
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• Red lentils x 1/4 cup 
• Shredded cabbage x 1 cup
  
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 1 medium potatoes chopped
• 1 parsnip, diced
• 1 carrot, diced
  
• 200 ml of Guinness, or other Irish stout
• 200 ml vegetable gravy
  
• 1 bay leaf 
  
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Ground black pepper to taste
  

Method 

1. In a large saucepan heat the oil, add the tofu or meat substitute and fry for about 2 minutes on a medium heat.
   
2. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is translucent. 
3. Add the vegetables minus the potato and fry a little more.
4. Pour in the Guinness and stock in and add the tomato purée. 
5. Add bay leaves, lentils and potatoes.  Leave to simmer for 1 hour.  This lets the flavours combine.
   

Translucent onions

Results 

Fantastic almost creamy texture and traditional taste.

Literature

Pritchard, M. (2022) Meat Free Monday: 'Irish Stew to Get Down You.' Available at https://meatfreemondays.com/recipes/irish-stew-to-get-down-you/ (accessed on 14/03/22)

BBC Good Food Guide (n.d.) 'Classic Irish stew' Available at https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/irish-stew-0  (accessed on 14/03/22)