Vegan Irish Stew

I've been slacking a bit in updating my blog. For that I apologize. But I do have a backlog of yummy recipes to post so be prepared for some seriously awesome fall food.

I got this recipe from http://autonomieproject.wordpress.com/. It was going to be an unusually cold October weekend so I decided to search for a cozy and filling stew recipe. This one looked easy and true to Irish stew.

Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 50-60 Minutes
3 Cups of Water
1 Cup Vegetable Broth
1 1/4 lbs Un-peeled Potatoes
1/2 lb Seitan or 8 oz of Chickpeas (if you don’t like fake meats)
3 Large Peeled Carrots
2 Medium Onions
1 Stalk Celery
1/2 Cup Barley
2 Tbls Soy Sauce
1/4 Tsp Thyme
1/4 Tsp Rosemary
1/2 Tsp Salt
Black Pepper to Taste

Cut all veggies into large stew like chunks, including potatoes. In a large pot combine water, vegetable broth, barley, onions, an salt. Bring to a boil and cook at medium heat for about 20 minutes. Add in the potatoes and cook for another ten minutes. Next add the carrots, seiten (or chickpeas), celery, soy sauce and all spices and cook for another 20 minutes on a low setting. Now you are ready to serve this traditional Irish dish.

It was pretty hard to screw up this recipe but - surprise surprise - I was able to. I cut up all of the vegetables, like the receipe says, and placed them all in a big bowl. It looked all harvesty and pretty and I was proud of my chopped veggies. That is until I needed to separate all the veggies, not realizing they don't go in all at once. My advice - first chop the onions and put them in the pot, then chop the potatoes while the onions are cooking, then the other stuff while the potatoes are cooking. You get the idea. The recipe could have done a better job of timing the chopping with the cooking - or I could have actually read the directions before trying to make it. Either way, now you know.

I couldn't find barley so I used a wild hearty rice. Once it cooked for a while it had the same consistency of barley so it worked out. I also used chick peas instead of seitan. I have yet to venture into seitan world so I thought I should play it safe for this recipe.

My parents and boyfriend seemed to enjoy it so I think I found a keeper.