Vegan Irish Stew with Guinness - Six Hungry Feet (2024)

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)!

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 vegan protein, and flavoured with Guinness and fresh herbs. Irish stew has been on our menu for St. Patrick's Day for years now, we simply love the flavors of the slow-cooked stew.

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

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. After trying different meat alternatives, we all agreed that Heura works beautifully.

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. This is our second favorite option.

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 flavor 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.

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 colors of the Irish flag. Onion for the white color, carrots for the orange color, and leek and celery for the green color.

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 flavor 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 flavor to your dish but alternatively, you can use olive oil, or another type of vegetable oil.

Flour. Used to thicken up the stew.

Step-by-Step Method

1. Add some vegan butter into a cast-iron pot or another type of large 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.
2. Add the vegan protein and herbs, stir, and cook for a few minutes.
3. Incorporate the tomato paste and flour and stir to combine all the ingredients.
4. Add the Guinness stout 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 is incorporated 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!

Variations for our Vegan Irish Stew Recipe

• Make it gluten-free. Unfortunately, Guinness is not gluten-free, so you will need to find a stout alternative such as Glutenberg, stout from Taylor GF Beer, or any other type of dark beer you can find that is labeled gluten-free. As well, you'll need to substitute the flour for a gluten-free option.
• Add potatoes. Potatoes are one of the most popular ingredients in Ireland, and there is a reason why we don't use potatoes for our Irish Stew: Traditionally, no potatoes are added to the stew. We love serving some mashed potatoes on the side, but you can, of course, include potatoes with the rest of the veggies.
• Use a different type of protein. You can use seitan, tofu, mushrooms, soy chunks, lentils, or another plant-based protein for this hearty stew.

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 St. Patrick's Day or simply a cold day, our Irish Stew recipe is such a great choice.

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

See Also

Oven Roasted Chilli with Hidden VegetablesVegan Massaman Curry - Six Hungry Feet - Asian-inspiredHomemade Green Bean Casserole without Condensed Soup RecipeCrunchy Honey BBQ Chicken Bites (Low Syn Fakeaway)

Other Irish recipes for Paddy's Day:

• Oven-baked Vegan Hash Browns
• Leek and Potato Soup
• Vegan Leek and Mushroom Pie
• Vegan Fish and Chips
• Vegan Mashed Potatoes
• 15 Traditional Irish Recipes