St. Patrick’s day is coming up! This Paleo Slow-Cooker Irish stew is perfect for a busy day. After you put the ingredients in the pot, you can walk away from the kitchen for hours and return to a mouth-watering meal. Slow cooking allows the flavors to deepen and merge resulting in pure comfort food heaven.
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Traditional Irish stew is made from mutton and potatoes. Now, we see variations that use beef, additional root vegetables, and Guinness. For this stew, I used celeriac and turnips instead of potatoes. This lowers the carb content, but preserves the nature of the dish. These root vegetables soaked up the other flavors in the dish and masqueraded as potatoes. I confess that I used the gluten-free beer in this recipe. I know it’s not quite Paleo, but I couldn’t help myself. Replacing the beer with stock works equally well. I also use a bit of arrowroot powder to thicken the stew. Arrowroot is a thickener made from a root rather than a grain, so I frequently use it in place of cornstarch. It is perfectly okay to leave it out of the recipe if you prefer. The tomato paste also helps thicken the stew.
Does anyone have a special traditional Irish stew recipe? Please comment below. I love to learn about different variations.
Enjoy!
-Annissa
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons coconut oil
- 2 pounds grass-fed beef, stew meat, cut into large chunks.
- sea salt
- 1 celeriac, peeled and diced
- 3 turnips, peeled and diced
- 3 med carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
- 2 yellow onions, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/3 cup tomato paste
- 3 cups beef stock
- 1 cup gluten-free beer OR 1 additional cup beef stock
- 1 Tablespoon arrowroot (optional)
- 1 Tablespoon fresh parsley leaves, chopped (optional)
- Heat large skillet over medium high heat.
- Dry beef and sprinkle with sea salt.
- In batches, brown the outside of the beef in skillet. You do not want to cook the inside of meat.
- Place browned stew meat and all other ingredients, except the arrowroot starch, in a 6 quart crock pot.
- Stir to combine.
- Cover crockpot and turn to high. Cook stew for four hours.
- Add arrowroot starch and cook for an additional hour. Meat should be very tender when finished.
- Garnish with parsley leaves if desired.
iIrish stew is a “white” stew. The lamb is not browned first. The ingredients are layered in the pot and all cooked at the same time. A traditional Irish stew is thin and can be somewhat greasy. I have had this dish all over Ireland and it rarely has a thick and brown broth. You usually find that in places that cater mainly to tourists.
Hmmm. Sorry my version isn’t thin and greasy! I think I’m ok with being a little less authentic. Lol!
Annissa
Ohhh…cat fight!
I’ll tKe your version anytime. No grease for me either.
Can you replace the arrow root with xantham gum?
Yes, I would just mix it with a small amount of cold water first to prevent clumping. You won’t need to use as much. I would start with 1/2 teaspoon and add more if you need it.
-Annissa