Irish Beef Stew

There is nothing quite as comforting as a delicious bowl of Irish Beef Stew with simple ingredients that never compromise on flavour. 

I could not have a recipe blog without recreating my mums delicious Irish Beef Stew, it's probably one of the first meals I watched her prepare and learned to make myself.

Ask any Irish person how they make their Irish stew, and you probably will get a different answer from each individual, but that aside, the basis of every Irish stew is usually the same - meat, carrots, potato and swede (or turnip depending on what you call it, to confuse matters even more, this side of the Atlantic, it can be called Rutabaga).

My mum and my grandma for that matter always used beef, but I know some do use lamb. I actually love lamb, but whenever I make an Irish stew, I will always use beef, because that is what I've become accustomed to.

If you are coming here looking for a thick gravy type stew, you will not find that here, as the kind of Irish Beef Stew my mother made, was always with a soupy broth and that's how exactly how I still love it.

Nothing complicated, no thickening starches, just a lovely flavoursome broth, with tender beef and healthy vegetables.

I have many memories of coming in from school to the smell of Irish Beef Stew bubbling away on the stove, and grabbing a mug of that flavoursome broth to warm myself up from the bitter cold outside. If you think it is cold where you are in the winter, try living near the South Coast of Ireland where not only do you have the wind and cold, but also the wet horrible rain.

I live in Canada now, where it also gets pretty cold in the winter, but luckily we don't get too much of that constant rain. It can reach some minus temperatures around January/February time though, which is when we are most likely to get some snowfall.

Some winters we are pretty lucky and only get a little bit of snowfall on an odd day, here and there, but then some winters, it's horrendous with piles and piles of the stuff, that you have to go out and shovel off your drive at regular intervals, unless you want to be snowed in and not be able to escape even for a few hours.

The snow shovelling certainly can help towards some fitness, and while I found it enjoyable shovelling the snow, the first couple of years, that novelty quickly wore off, let me tell you.

For the beef in my recreation of this delicious Irish Beef Stew, I use some lean stewing beef all visible fat trimmed to make it as healthy as possible, as it's going to be the best cut for this type of dish.

Oxtails are pretty amazing in this too but tend to be quite fatty, and once you remove all the visible fat, you are pretty much going to be left with just the bone. Occasionally, however, I will work out the approximate value for oxtails and use them instead.

It is one of my kids favourite casserole/stew type dishes, and the perfect dish to make when they are going through a fussy period of not eating many vegetables. If I make up some Irish Soda bread for them to go along with it, they will devour a whole bowl of this Irish Beef Stew without any complaints. They love this just as much as I did as a child.

I just so happen to have a Gluten Free Soda Bread that you can make using your Healthy Extra B choice, that is a perfect side accompaniment to this Irish Beef Stew

When I am missing my mum, I will often make up a pot of this Irish Beef Stew, just to bring back all those lovely memories of her delicious homecooked food.

Living far away from family in another part of the world can be difficult at the best of times, but add to that an illness like dementia and those home comforts are needed often.

If making this Irish Beef Stew on the stove top, I really do recommend simmering it for the amount of time instructed, it develops all those lovely flavours and helps the beef to becomes lovely and tender. If you skimp on the time, you will not get the same result, trust me.

For the broth, my mum would always use a mixture of beef and vegetable stock and so, of course, that is what I do too. I have made this with all beef stock before and it definitely is the best with the mix of stocks.

If you own an instant pot or pressure cooking, you can cut the time for making this down quite a bit. I have tested it out and it turns out amazing well. I find 35 mins high pressure with a natural pressure release, is the right timing for those tender pieces of beef. I've done it at a shorter time before, but the meat wasn't as tender.

If you haven’t heard of an Instant Pot you are seriously missing out. It is the best kitchen gadget I have purchased. I would even put it above my actifry and that’s saying something.

It is basically a multi-pressure cooker, which can slow cook, pressure cooks, saute, has settings for soup, chilli, rice, porridge and even makes yoghurt (I haven’t tried that yet, but plan to give that a go very soon).

Check out my other: Instant Pot Recipes

Click here to read more about the instant pot on Amazon

A cheaper option is the Pressure King Pro and it's another great alternative to the Instant Pot.

Leftovers the next day, if you are lucky enough to have any leftover that is, taste even better. You know those kinds of dishes, that taste even more amazing the next day. This is definitely one of those.

Please do not be offended though if this is not like the Irish Beef Stew your family would make, as like I mentioned, no two Irish Beef Stews are the same, how one family makes theirs, another family will make theirs quite differently.

I have also made a Slow Cooker Irish Beef Stew where I use sweet potato for my little twist, sweet potato, of course, will never be found in an Irish Stew, but I found it gives a lovely flavour to the broth, so do give it a try.

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Want some more casserole or stew type dishes? Check out these other delicious recipes:

• Beef and Barley Stew
• Vegetable and Bean Stew
• Beef and Sweet Potato Stew
• Beef and Vegetable Casserole
• Beef Vegetable Barley Soup
• Chicken and Baked Bean Casserole
• Slow Cooked Chicken
• Balsamic Braised Beef
• Sausage Casserole
• Tuscan Beef Casserole
• Slow Cooked Sweet Onion Braised Beef
• Sausage and Lentil Casserole
• Slow Cooked Chicken Casserole
• Creamy Pork Casserole
• Moroccan Chicken Casserole
• Smoked Paprika Chicken Casserole
• Mediterranean Chicken Casserole

Looking for more recipe ideas? Head on over to my FULL RECIPE INDEX where you will find over 500+ delicious Slimming Eats recipes to choose from and all are searchable by value, meal type, ingredients etc.

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WHAT KITCHEN ITEMS DO I NEED TO MAKE THIS IRISH BEEF STEW?

• Deep Saucepan or Instant Pot
• Kitchen Scales
• Measuring Jug
• Measuring Spoons
• Wooden Spoon
• Santoku Knife (perfect knife for chopping veg)
• Chopping Board

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