Irish Stew with Guinness

 The Smiths tried this new recipe on a mixed group of omnivores and vegans and all said "Make this again!"  So, if you are planning to host some friends to celebrate St. Patrick, why not make a batch of this portobello-based stew?

Thank you to Melanie McDonald of A Virtual Vegan for this recipe.

How many does it serve?  Jane made 1 1/2 batches which served 10 people (not the 12 predicted).  This was dinner and our sides were a salad and bakery bread.

Ease of preparation?  Super easy.  Other than the time to cut up the veggies, this is a "put it together and then stir occasionally" kind of meal - great when you have other things to do to get ready for your guests.  An hour of cooking was sufficient to get the big chunk red skin potatoes tender, thought prep time was more like 20 minutes with both Gary and Jane cutting up veggies.

Notes on ingredients

We chose the portobello mushroom version and cut each cap by thirds, then by fourths on the perpendicular to get 12 chunks per mushroom.  All other veggies were prepped as described.

Jane thinks rutabaga's are too hard to peel, so we went for turnips cut in bite-sized chunks.  A good choice. 

As recommended by the creator, we did use large red skin potatoes and cut each into 6 big chunks.  Smaller chunks might have gotten too mushy.

Saltiness:  We used Tamari and Swanson's Vegetable Broth and did not add more salt.  It was still a bit saltier than Jane would have liked.  Next time we might go for either lower salt Tamari or broth.

Can this be made gluten-free?  Yes.  Replace the "flour" with a gluten-free flour or corn starch and choose a gluten-free vegetable broth.