Guinness Stew and Beer Bread

Our errands today included getting a new cutting board, new pot holders, and new napkins with napkin holders. Kind of impulse buys, but I got some pretty yellow pot holders and white napkins with blue holders. I think I'm getting too anxious for Spring. Too bad it'll be a good 3 more months until winter is over :( I want to ride my bicycle!!

We also checked out a new bar in West Fargo - JL Beers. They have a smaller bar downtown that has 32 beers on tap, but the new one has 40 beers on tap! We love having a big selection to choose from.

I had a Breckenridge Vanilla Porter, easily the darkest beer I've had all to myself. It was amazing! I definitely have an appreciation for rich, dark beers. Dillon does too, of course. He recently discovered his love for Guinness - which brings me to our dinner, Guinness Stew!

Guinness Stew 
Adapted from this recipe

2 bottles of a dark stout or ale - I used one bottle of Guinness and one bottle of Smithwicks
3 cups of vegetable broth - give or take
7 oz of seitan - you could definitely sub this for ground beef or turkey
1 can of dark kidney beans, rinsed and drained
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small yellow onion, diced
2 russet potatoes, cut into cubes
2 large carrots
4 stalks celery
2 tbsp of soy sauces
1 tbsp steak sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
2-3 tbsp flour, to thicken
salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a frying pan. Cut seitan into strips and put into the pan with the drained and rinsed beans. Add soy sauce and steak sauce to the pan and cook until throughly covered in sauce.

While the seitan and beans are cooking, prepare vegetables and add to a crockpot. Add the seitan and beans to the crockpot and pour the beer on top. Add enough broth to the crockpot to cover all the ingredients.  Let cook on high for a couple of hours.

While it's cooking, make this delicious and easy Beer Bread to go with your stew!

When you're about ready to eat, add the flour to the stew to thicken the broth. I did this about 40 minutes before serving, and it worked out perfectly!

Then when you're ready - serve!

So hearty and delicious! (See - cute new napkins and holders :) )

We really enjoyed this stew! It's really easy to prepare and now we have some leftovers for lunches this week, too! The beer flavor isn't very strong, but you get a taste of it. Dillon especially liked it, and the bread goes complements it so well!

I would definitely recommend trying this recipe, and like I mentioned, you could easily sub ground meat or even sausage for the seitan and beans if that's more your style. I'm sure it would be great either way. And if you're not into buying a whole 6-pack of Guinness or dark ale to make this stew, you don't have to! Most liquor stores have a "make your own 6-pack" section, and that's where we got our beer for this. Though now that Dillon discovered that he really loves Guinness, I'm sure we'll have it around more often. 

Well I must get to prepped the other food I want to make for the week. Especially the almond butter, as it is kind of rude to process almonds late at night in an apartment!

I hope you had a great weekend! I know I did :)

~Kasey