Secrets from the Cookie Princess: Guinness Irish Stew

Are you noticing a theme yet? There are alternatives to corned beef and cabbage if you'd like to make an Irish dinner in honor of St. Patrick's Day coming up. This is the good stuff I made to go with the brown bread I shared on Monday. Loaded with yummy beef, lots of veggies, barley and seasoning, plus a Guinness kicker for extra flavor, this is a wonderful meal. Oh, did I forget to say it was a crock pot meal? Because yes, it's as easy as dump, mix, turn on and eat. My favorite kind of meal. This stew is definitely hearty and will warm you up, so if like me you're still stuck underneath a polar ice cap (or have so much snow in your yard that it's now insulated itself and is giving off cold air of it's own causing you to wonder if you might see the grass by May) then this is the dish for you. I love everything about it. The Guinness is definitely there, but in a mild behind the scenes flavor kind of way.

I made some adaptations to this recipe, originally from Corey at Family Fresh Meals, not the least of which was adding the Guinness. I increased the beef only because I had a bigger package and what can I say, we like cow. I also added potatoes (hello, it's Irish stew), and parsnips. But it was still so simple to just chop, toss, stir, turn on the crock pot and spend my time on other things (laundry, watching movies, vacuuming, blogging, making cupcakes, you know--very important things). We'll have this again. I might swap in more Guinness for the beef broth. Maybe not. Either way, this stew makes me think about happy things, like when it's this cold I can get away with hunkering down inside with a hearty stew like this and ignoring the igloos the squirrels have made by burrowing under the 3 feet of snow in the yard.

Guinness Irish Stew

Ingredients

2-3 pounds stew beef or sirloin beef
14 ounces diced tomatoes
8 ounces tomato sauce
2 medium potatoes
2 medium parsnips
2 stalks celery
1 large carrot
1 medium onion
3/4 cup pearl barley
4 cups beef broth
12 ounces Guinness
1 teaspoon salt
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon sage
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Cut beef to 1 inch pieces, removing any excess fat as needed. Place in the bottom of a 6 quart crock pot.

Add tomatoes and tomato sauce to crock pot. Dice all the vegetables to about 1/2 inch pieces. Include the leafy greens of the celery to add flavor. Add to pot.