I am not a big holiday person. In fact, I'm kind of a party pooper when it comes to holidays. On St. Patrick's Day, I make an effort not to wear green. Because if I accidentally do wear green? Well, someone might think I'm in the holiday spirit. And we wouldn't want that, would we?
So now that you know I'm a complete killjoy (I also like to rain on parades and steal candy from babies), let me tell you what St. Patrick's Day means to me. It's my Grandpa's birthday! So, since I know my grandparents will be reading this, I want to wish my Grandpa a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
St. Patrick's Day is also a good excuse to break out the Guinness, one of the few beers that I actually enjoy drinking. But even better than drinking Guinness is cooking with Guinness. Since I've been coming up with recipes involving sweet potatoes all week, I decided to try doing a vegetarian Irish stew with sweet potatoes and Guinness. I added tempeh for protein and lentils because we had them on hand (why not, right?). The result was a hearty vegetarian Irish stew that even a meat eater could love.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 large onion diced
- 2 medium carrots sliced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tbsp. flour
- 1-8 oz. package of tempeh cubed
- 1-14.9 oz can of stout beer like Guinness
- 1 large sweet potato cut into ½ inch cubes
- ½ cup lentils rinsed
- 3 cups of vegetable broth
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp. dried thyme
- 1 tsp. dried rosemary
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a large Dutch oven, heat oil at medium. Add onions, carrots, and garlic and cook 7-10 minutes, or until just beginning to brown, stirring frequently. Add flour and cook for 2 more minutes. Add tempeh and cook 2 minutes more.
- Add beer and raise heat to high. Boil for 3 minutes. Add broth, sweet potato chunks, lentils, and herbs.
- Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 40 minutes, or until lentils and sweet potatoes are tender and sauce begins to thicken. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Matt @ FaveDiets says
This is such an awesome recipe! I love how you put such a unique twist on cooking for St. Patrick's day, as I don't think I've ever seen a St. Paddy's day-themed recipe with tempeh in it. Thanks for linking this up to the FaveDiets blog hop!
Megan says
A bowl of this and a beer would be a perfect ending to my St. Patty's Day. 😉
Jess says
This is something different than our usual corned beef and cabbage. Can't wait to try this - looks fabulous!
Jess
quinsmomma.blogspot.com
jayedee says
yum! what an awesome recipe i wish i'd seen it yesterday! it would have saved us all from a very bad seitan corned 'beef' lol
c'est la vie, i guess!
Texas Type A Mom says
That sounds great and so festive! Beats my salad last night. I guess, at least it was green.
Christina @ It's a Keeper says
Wow! This looks amazing! Thanks for linking up to the It's a Keeper Thursday blog hop! Be sure to come back next week and link something new!
Christina @ It's a Keeper
http://www.everydaytastes.com/
http://twitter.com/itsakeeperblog
http://www.facebook.com/ItsAKeeper
Diana says
Thank you so much for this recipe! I made it last week and my meat-eating husband loved it. I didn't have sweet potatoes on hand so made it with regular potatoes. Wonderful! I'd recommend it to anyone!
Kiersten Frase says
Thanks for your comment - I'm glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Toby Bowlin says
Recipe looks great! Just an FYI, Guinness is not considered vegan, they still use isinglass (fish bladder)as a filtering agent. source Barnivore
Kiersten Frase says
My understanding was always that some Guinness is vegan, some isn't: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-stpatricks-guinness-good-for-you-012,0,1165019.photo, http://www.vegan.com/blog/vegan-friendly-guinness-does-no-mean-yes/
Toby Bowlin says
There seems to be some confusion out there with regards to the extra stout Guiness. I get my beer/wine info from Barnivore.com. I think they are very thorough. Big discussion as to where that beer is specifically brewed and what process they use. Various emails from the company contradict each other. Some say isinglass, some say no isinglass. I guess it just comes down to if it's really important to you. Thanks for the reply
Katlyn says
Do you think it would be okay for pregnant women to eat? I don't know anything about cooking with beer or wine.
Kiersten Frase says
I would skip it. I'm pregnant too and I've done a lot of research about cooking with alcohol because I LOVE to cook with wine and beer. While a lot of the alcohol does cook off, not all of it does. There's no amount of alcohol considered "safe" during pregnancy because there's never been any research to figure out what safe levels would be. A lot of women will still cook with it and enjoy an occasional glass of wine during pregnancy and the baby is just fine, but others abstain entirely. It's really up to you, but I've decided to abstain just because I know myself and I'm a worrier. 🙂