I don’t frequently post recipes from my cookbook, but with St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow I just couldn’t resist! I am half Irish, so I’ve always loved having a day of the year set aside to celebrate all things Ireland. I have already established on this blog that the Irish do not eat corned beef and cabbage. What they do eat, however is a wonderful array of warming comfort foods to pair perfectly with the green and drizzly surroundings! This Irish beef stew is one of my favorites. I use it to remind me of my home away from home!
Low-Carb Irish Beef Stew?
Now I know what some of you are saying. “Heather! We thought you and Eric usually ate a low-carb diet!” Well, yes, yes, we do. While I will admit that this meal is somewhat of a splurge for us, I do have a trick for lowering the carb count just a little!
Yes, I’ll tell you, but you have to promise not to tell your family. And for heaven’s sake, don’t tell MY family because they’ve never noticed my trick!
The Switch
OK. You seem trustworthy, so here goes. To reduce the overall carb-count for my Irish Beef Stew, I replace half the potatoes with radishes! Once it all cooks together in the delicious sauce, no one can really tell the difference! In fact, I only notice the difference because I am looking for it!
Irish Beef Stew
Ingredients
- 2-3 pounds stew beef or venison cubes
- ½ cup lard or other oil
- ½ cup flour
- 1 large onion chopped
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 bottle of dark beer
- 2 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 quart water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 4-6 carrots, cut into bite sized pieces
- 2 pounds new potatoes or potato cubes
Instructions
- Heat lard or oil over medium-high heat in a large pot or Dutch oven.
- Toss meat together with flour to coat.
- Place meat into the oils and lightly fry on both sides. You will probably have to do this in several batches so as not to crowd the pot. You are just trying to get nice color on the meat, it isn’t necessary to cook it through. Remove meat onto a plate and set aside. (Add more oil if necessary during cooking.)
- Once all the meat is browned and removed from the pot, add the onions and cook until translucent. Then add the tomato paste and garlic and mix it all around.
- Pour in the bottle of beer and scrape the bottom of the pot with your spoon to loosen up all the yummy goodness.
- Add the meat back in with any juice that has collected on the plate, then add remaining stew ingredients (not the topping)
- Cook on medium-low heat for at least an hour, or place into a 250° oven for 3 or 4 hours.
- When the stew is done, mix topping ingredients and add a dollop to each bowl of stew if desired.
Notes
I hope you love this stew as much as I do! I love it even more when I pair it with my super-easy homemade Irish Wheaten Bread.
You can find this great recipe and many more in my cookbook, The Homestead Kitchen *affiliate link* which is available on Amazon and will soon be released in an e-book format!
