Vegan Beef Stew with Mushrooms

In addition to the Beef Stew I made for 50 Monday Night Football fans, I also made a small batch of vegan stew using the beef stew recipe as a starting point and replacing ingredients as necessary. To my taste buds, it was just as delicious as the meat version and made the potluck more inclusive to a wider range of dietary preferences.

Vegan Stew Ingredients List

You will see that the corn starch and water are listed as optional. I did not end up using corn starch as a thickener because the broth seemed to be thick enough already.

Serves: 6-8 people

Vegan Stew Seasoning Mix

• 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoons of granulated garlic
• 1 teaspoons dried crushed rosemary
• 1 teaspoons dried thyme
• 1 teaspoons dried marjoram
• 1 teaspoons paprika

Vegan Stew Ingredients

• Olive or avocado oil as needed
• 24-32 oz of portobello, baby bella, or white mushrooms
• 1/2 white or yellow onion, diced
• 2 ribs celery, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 3 tablespoons of tomato paste
• 1 cup of red wine (a low-cost blend, Cabernet, Zinfandel, or Merlot)
• 3 tablespoons of Aroma One Vegetable or Mushroom broth mixed in 3 cups of water
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 bay leaves
• 1 pound of yellow and red potatoes (sometimes called “creamers”), halved
• 3 carrots, peeled, halved, and chopped into bite sized pieces
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley
• 1/4 cup water (optional)
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch (optional)

Vegan Stew Cooking Instructions

Like the beef stew, one of the considerations I made in preparing this stew was the environment where people were eating. If I were making this for serving at home, I would probably halve the mushrooms, while keeping the carrots and potatoes in slightly larger chunks. Since people would be eating from disposable soup bowls with plastic spoons, I made everything bite-sized to accommodate the small spoons.

1. Combine all ingredients in the seasoning list into a small bowl. Be sure to stir them so they are thoroughly blended. If you have whole rosemary, you can crush it with a rolling pin or the back of a large spoon to create smaller pieces.
2. Cut mushrooms into small pieces. For baby bellas or white mushrooms, I cut them in half and then slice each half into small pieces that cook down to easily fit on a spoon. If you use whole portobello mushrooms cut them into pieces that are spoon sized.
3. Heat olive or avocado oil in a 4-6 quart sauce pan at a medium-high heat. Add mushrooms to the pan. Sprinkle some of the spice mixture over the mushrooms and sauté until mushrooms start releasing liquid and all mushrooms are sautéed. Set the mushrooms and all juices aside.
4. Add olive or avocado oil to your pan and heat to medium-high. Add onion to the pan followed by the celery after the onion has a chance to get hot. Add garlic last. Sprinkle some of the seasoning mixture over the contents of your pan. Stir occasionally until all vegetables are soft. Add the tomato paste and mix it in to the onion and celery. Add the red win and increase the heat under the pot to bring the mixture to a boil. Add the mushrooms, vegetable broth, soy sauce, remaining spice mix and bay leaf to your sauce pan. Bring your pot to a boil. Reduce heat to LOW, cover, and simmer for 50 minutes.
5. Add the potatoes and carrots to your pot. Raise the heat to bring the liquid back to a boil. Reduce the heat to LOW, cover and simmer for another 40 minutes until the potatoes and carrots are fork tender. Stir in the frozen peas and parsley. 
6. If the stew is not thick enough to your liking at this point, combine the water and cornstarch in a small bowl and stir a little bit at a time into your veggie stew. Continue cooking, uncovered, until thickened to your desired amount.
7. Be sure to discard the bay leaf before serving.