Name: Lamb Stew with Spring Vegetables
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 1 h 45 min
Total time: 2 h 15 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Irish
Ingredients: 4 pounds lamb shoulder chops with bone or 2 1/3 pounds boneless lamb stew meat, trimmed of fat and cut into 1 to 1 1/2 inch pieces. Meat that clings to the bones is fine – it will come off easily after cooking.; Kosher salt; Fresh ground black pepper; 1/2 cup all purpose flour; Olive oil or other cooking oil; 1 large onion, peeled, halved and thinly sliced (1 1/2 cups); 1 cup Guinness Stout or dry Vermouth (based on your preference); 2 large garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped; 1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste; 4 cups low salt chicken broth, divided; A 6-inch sprig of fresh rosemary or 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary; 8 medium carrots, sliced on the diagonal into wedges; 5 boiling potatoes – yukon golds or white potatoes (2-2 1/2 pounds) cut into wedges (set aside in a bowl of cold water to prevent browning); 1 1/4 pounds green beans, trimmed; 1 cup frozen green peas, defrosted

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There’s nothing like a great stew to satisfy and warm you from the inside. Here’s a heavenly lamb stew with extremely tender lamb, loads of fresh veggies, and rich savory flavors. It’s a whole dinner in one pot that’s worthy of any occasion.

St. Patrick’s Day is a few weeks away and so is spring. I’m excited for both. I’m all for celebrating every possible occasion and St. Patrick’s Day is a particularly delicious food holiday, with corned beef and cabbage, corned beef hash, shepherd’s pie and Irish stew.

In honor of St Patrick’s Day and the coming of spring, here’s a delicious recipe for lamb stew with spring vegetables.

There isn’t a definitive modern day Irish stew recipe. (I’d love to know if you disagree) Way back when, before the potato famine, Irish Stew – ballymaloe – was a peasant dish composed of the most simple, cheap and readily available ingredients: mutton (older, tougher sheep meat), root vegetables (carrots, potatoes, parsnips), parsley and water. Today there are endless variations – some with lamb, some with beef. Potatoes can be cooked with the meat or mashed and served on the side. Some versions include wine, others contain Guinness stout.

I experimented quite a bit and ended up with this lamb stew recipe that achieves everything I want lamb stew to be: extremely tender lamb in a rich savory sauce with potatoes bright fresh spring vegetables.

How to make the best lamb stew

If you flour and brown the lamb and then simmer it slowly, adding the vegetables later in the cooking process, you’ll end up with the most incredibly tender lamb and perfectly cooked veggies.

Cut the lamb into bite-sized pieces, season it with salt and pepper, and toss it with flour. Shake the cubes of lamb in a colander to remove the excess flour. Brown the lamb in batches and transfer it to a stew pot.
Sauté onions in a skillet until lightly browned and add them to the stew pot. Add Guinness or Vermouth to the skillet and deglaze it, stirring with a wooden spoon to loosen any browned bits of meat and onion. Pour the liquid into the stew pot and add the garlic, tomato paste, chicken broth, and fresh rosemary. Cover the pot and gently simmer the stew for an hour.
While the stew is simmering, blanch the green beans for about 3 minutes, until they’re bright green and slightly tender. Shock them in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. Blanching the green beans is an extra step but it’s so worthwhile. The beans are bright green and cooked to perfection and are then added to the stew at the end.
When the stew has simmered for an hour, bury the carrots and potatoes in the stew and simmer it for 25-30 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Add the blanched green beans and the peas. Cover and cook for 5 minutes longer. Serve hot.

What is the best cut of lamb for lamb stew?

Almost any cut of lamb will work for stew but lamb shoulder is my favorite. It’s nicely marbleized and gets extremely tender when braised low and slow.
I prefer to buy a large piece of lamb and do all the trimming and slicing myself. I enjoy finding pathways along the bones, slicing off the fat, and cutting the cubes just the way I want them. But if butchering isn’t your thing, look for precut lamb stew meat at the grocery store.
If you do buy lamb on the bone, cook the bones in with the stew for added flavor. Don’t worry about cutting off all the meat, it will fall off the bones as the stew cooks and the meat tenderizes.

Is lamb stew better with wine or beer?

I wondered about this so I cooked two identical pots of this stew with only one variable – I used dry white wine for one batch and Guinness stout for the other. There were subtle differences in flavor. The stew made with wine had a more French flavor. In the end, both pots of stew were excellent. I suggest you use Guinness if you’re making Irish stew for St. Patrick’s Day. Otherwise, choose wine or beer, whichever you prefer or what you have on hand.

If you’d like to serve a salad on the side with your lamb stew, I recommend this citrusy butter lettuce salad.

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It’s been a particularly cold winter here in New England and, though I’m excited for spring, I also feel the need to grab onto the last weeks of winter and cook up some cozy comforting stews while there’s still snow on the ground.

Here’s the recipe for Lamb Stew with Spring Vegetables. If you try this recipe, I hope you’ll come back to leave a star rating and comment. I’d love to know what you think.