LAMB AND LEEK STEW: The ultimate St. Patrick's Day celebration dinner

I'm channeling my great grandparents — the Sligo side — for this St. Patrick's Day dinner, a lamb stew featuring local lamb braised in dark Guinness beer. Slàinte mhath!

My version of Irish Stew with braised lamb, leeks and mushrooms — St. Patrick's Day comfort!

By CINDA CHAVICH

Today is St. Patrick’s Day and, as usual, March is a wild lion at the moment — with big atmospheric river rains arriving in waves this week.

So, channeling my Celtic side, I’m serving a lamb stew with mushrooms and leeks, a kind of Irish Stew with attitude. It’s my own concoction inspired by a Beef and Beer Stew recipe (in both High Plains and my Pressure Cooker cookbooks) using Guinness, natch, instead of the usual red ale. I used lamb stew meat from the local Parry Bay Sheep Farm in Metchosin (you can buy direct at the farm gate or from local butchers), augmented by some Canadian lamb shoulder from the supermarket, along with locally-grown leeks, lots of chopped sweet red onions and some baby button mushrooms. A few hours in a low oven and it’s the perfect comforting stew to serve alongside my other Celtic favourite, colcannon (a savoury mash of potatoes, onions, parsnips and cabbage). Slainte!

AN IRISH STYLE STEW

Meaty lamb stew meat braised with dark with, along with leeks, red onions and mushrooms makes a delicious dinner.

Guinness stout is the best braising liquid

2 pounds lean lamb shoulder or stew meat, cut into 2-3-inch chunks

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp olive oil

2 medium red onions, chopped (about 3 cups)

1 large leek, white and light green parts (about a 6-inch piece) cut into thick rounds

1 tablespoon butter

2 cups fresh button mushrooms (small, marble sized, or halved if larger)

2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped fine

1 large stalk of celery, minced

1 small carrot, chopped fine

Black pepper

2 sprigs fresh rosemary

1 fresh bay leaf

1 can of Guinness stout (440 mL)

Season the lamb pieces well with salt and pepper. In a heavy Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium high heat and sear the lamb in batches, browning well on both sides, then set aside.

In the fat leftover in the pan, cook the red onions until softened. Remove red onions from the pan and set aside with the seared lamb. Add the rounds of leek to the pan (with a little additional olive oil if necessary) and cook for a few minutes on each side, until starting to colour. Remove and set aside.

Add the butter to the pan with the mushrooms and saute for five minutes, until they are starting to brown. Stir in the garlic, celery and carrot and saute together for another five minutes.

Return the browned lamb, red onions and leeks to the pan and stir to combine. Season with black pepper and add the fresh rosemary and bay leaf.

Preheat the oven to 325 F.

Pour the can of Guinness over top and bring everything to a simmer over medium high heat, stirring up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan.

Cover the pan and place in the preheated oven. Cook the lamb stew for 2 to 3 hours, checking after 2 hours to see if the meat is tender and the sauce is nicely thickened. Remove the lid and continue to cook, in the oven or the stovetop, until thickened as you like.

Discard rosemary and bay leaf. Serve over mashed potatoes or colcannon (recipe follows).

TIP: To thicken the braising liquid, you can also add a slurry of cornstarch and water, stir into the stew and simmer a few minutes until sauce is thick.

COLCANNON

Cabbage and potatoes — like peas and carrots — are perfect partners. This is a classic peasant dish from the Celts — a mash of potatoes, onions, parsnips, and cabbage truly exceeds the sum of its parts. With the addition of a little butter and cream, it’s a winter feast on its own, or perfect as a side dish with these tender braised lamb shanks.

6 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 cup (250 mL) peeled and chopped parsnips,

(about 2)

3 cups (750 mL) finely shredded or chopped

green cabbage (about ½ of a small cabbage)

2 cups (500 mL) water

1 tsp (5 mL) salt

freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup (60 mL) butter (extra for topping)

¼ cup (60 mL) whipping cream

In a large, heavy saucepan, layer the vegetables—half of the potatoes, onions, parsnips, and cabbage—then repeat. Add the salt to the water, and pour it overtop.

Cover the pan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer, covered, for 1 hour.

Drain and use a potato masher to mash everything together. Season with salt and pepper and mash in the butter and whipping cream. Serve portions individual portions of colcannon as they do in Ireland, hot and topped with an extra knob of butter.

SCOTCH BROTH

In my popular cookbook, The Girl Can’t Cook, I called this old-fashioned Celtic combination “Poverty Potage” — a stick-to-your-ribs, hearty winter soup to make with you’re flat broke and there’s nothing in the cupboard to cook. Like my penny-pinching Scots Irish ancestors, it’s a way to stretch a couple of bucks worth of lamb stew meat, a few root veggies and a handful of barley into one of those comforting meals that’s the perfect antidote to winter woes. It’s classic fare in every Glaswegian household — how else do you think they afford those pricey single malts?

I used the bones that I cut away from the inexpensive lamb should chops that I bought for my stew to enhance the broth (and finely chopped the meat left on the bones to add to the soup).

Ask the butcher at the supermarket for lamb bones, they give the broth it’s special flavour and rich texture. Or just use the bones that you trim yourself from the lamb shoulder chops that got into your fancy lamb stew, like I did . Waste not, want not!

A comforting soup filled with chewy barley and root veggies in a rich lamb broth

1/2 pound meaty lamb bones

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 1/2 cup chopped onion

3 stalks celery, chopped

8 cups chicken broth

2 cups finely diced rutabaga

1 cup finely diced carrots

1 cup pearl barley

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves (or 1/2 teaspoon/ 2 ml dried thyme)

salt to taste

Place meaty lamb bones in a Dutch oven or other large, oven proof pot with a splash of oil and saute over medium high heat until nicely browned. Add chopped onion, celery and stir to combine, the continue to saute together until everything starts to colour.

This browning step adds a lot of flavour to your broth so don’t skip it.

Add the broth, water, rutabaga and carrots and bring to a boil. Cover the pot, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the lid, add the barley, garlic, pepper and thyme and continue to simmer for 45 minutes, until the barley is tender and the soup is thick.

Remove the soup bones and remove any meat that you can from the bones, chop to add back into the soup. Discard the bones. Thin the soup, if necessary, with a little more water.

Season with salt to taste and serve. Makes 8 hearty servings (and keeps well in the refrigerator for several days.)

TIP: Rutabagas are sometimes mislabeled as turnips. They’re the big, orange-fleshed root vegetables, while turnips are white with a purple blush on the shoulders. But if you can’t find rutabagas, turnips are good in this soup, too.

©CindaChavich2026