A bubbling, golden and vegan Guinness Pie made with blonde Guinness, veggies like carrots, potatoes, celery and tomatoes, and chunky bits of vegan chick'n. Perfect for cozy dinners or for the holiday table. The recipe is nut-free and can be gluten-free.
After falling in love with everything Irish -- and especially Irish food -- since my trip to that gorgeous country, I'd been dying to make a vegan Guinness Pie and devour it. So I did, and now I have one more favorite family dinner that I know I'll be making again and again.
Savory pies are the ultimate comfort food, and I love baking up pies like these reader favorites vegan pot pie and vegan mushroom pot pie all year round.
The recipe for this Guinness pie is my own, but I drew on ingredients and flavors that would go into an Irish chicken stew. And I used Guinness as part of the flavor base -- although the Guinness I used was not the traditional stout used in pot pies like these but rather the lighter, citrusy, blonde Guinness which, I think, works better with a recipe that doesn't actually have red meat in it.
On top of all that stew-y goodness I layered on strips of puff pastry that baked into golden, delicious crispy-ness. It was heaven on a plate, and I couldn't stop eating.
This is a rather easy recipe, and you can put it together rather quickly with storebought puff pastry (you can also use this healthier homemade whole wheat vegan puff pastry). For the rest, all you need to do is chop the veggies, and you're pretty much done with prep.
One word about the vegan chick'n stew that goes into this dish. This is an incredibly flavorful stew and you can totally serve it by itself, with rice or a crusty bread. If you do, you might want to thin it out a little more with vegetable stock.
The New York Times' Sam Sifton describes a Guinness Pie as "beef in dark, silky gravy composed of fat and reduced stout, flecked with tender vegetables, covered in pastry... Eating it — salty and rich, buttoned with sweetness — will occasion thoughts of a coming walk or a nap on the couch with the dog." All true, except, happily, there's no beef around here, so I riffed off with a traditionally flavored and very vegan "chicken" stew, and it's just as delicious. You can definitely use a beef-like stew as a filling -- my vegan Irish Stew recipe would be perfect if you want a more traditional but vegan Guinness Pie.
I used Guinness because although I was veering away from the more popular stout here, I still wanted those unique flavors in there, only lighter. You can certainly use another beer, something with a floral, citrusy bouquet.
You don't need much, really. I'd pair it with a glass of wine and a salad, at most.
Yes, absolutely. You can try this with either tofu (super firm or extra firm with water drained), tempeh, white beans, or any other kind of vegan meat substitute. Add these at the same stage you'd add the chick'n.
You can make the stew ahead and refrigerate it for up to 3 days or freeze for longer. Before serving, thaw, cover with puff pastry, and bake.
No. But let me preface that by saying that a lattice top is not difficult to make at all and the minimal effort gives a spectacular result. I don't really have the patience (or skill) to make a great lattice top that's perfectly woven, so I usually just lay the strips on and bake. But it still looks pretty darn good, doesn't it? If you absolutely don't want to, just layer on the sheet of puff pastry and cut a few slits in the middle in a star pattern. Your pie will be just as delicious.
More savory vegan pie recipes
- Vegan Chicken Tikka Masala Pot Pie
- Vegan French Onion Tart
- Vegan Tomato Pie
- Vegan Bean and Potato Pot Pie
More vegan Irish recipes
- Vegan Irish Chili
- Vegan Irish Whiskey Sauce
- Irish Whiskey Tofu Steaks
- Vegan Irish Hand Pies
- Vegan Irish Shepherd's Pie
Vegan Guinness Pie
Ingredients
- 1 sheet puff pastry
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large onion (finely diced)
- 1 large carrot (finely diced)
- 2 stalks celery (finely diced)
- 10 cloves garlic (smashed and chopped)
- 2 large potatoes (red or yellow, diced)
- ½ teaspoon thyme (if substituting, use 1 tablespoon of fresh herbs)
- ½ teaspoon rosemary
- 2 tablespoon unbleached all purpose flour (use rice flour for a gluten-free version)
- 12 oz beer
- 1 cup canned tomatoes (canned, or any canned plum tomatoes, crushed with your fingers, along with the juice)
- 8 oz vegan chick'n pieces (use white beans, tofu or tempeh for a gluten-free version)
- 1 cup vegetable stock
- Salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 8-10 fresh basil leaves (torn or cut into ribbons)
- 2 tablespoon vegan butter
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the onions, carrots and celery along with a dash of salt and ground black pepper. Sweat the vegetables until the onions are translucent. You don't want to brown them.
- Add the garlic, saute a few seconds, then add the potatoes, rosemary and thyme. Mix well.
- Add the all purpose flour and saute for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly. Add in the entire bottle of Guinness. Alcohol is highly flammable, so when adding it to anything that's on the stove, make sure you either turn your flame off, or reduce it really low so it doesn't catch any spatter.
- Stir the stew and let it bubble away for a couple of minutes. It will look really thick at this stage because of the all purpose roux, but that's fine.
- Add the tomatoes and let the stew continue to cook, covered, for about 10 minutes. You want to let the potatoes get tender and you want the bitterness of the Guinness to dissipate to your liking. The more you let the stew cook, the more you'll cook out the alcohol.
- Add the chick'n pieces to the pot and, if needed, add some of the vegetable stock to thin out your stew. You can make this as thick or thin as you want. I prefer my pot pie filling really thick, so I used less.
- Check to see if you need more salt and ground black pepper, and turn off the heat after the stew comes to a boil. Stir in the vegan butter and the basil.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- To assemble your Guinness pie, pour the stew into a two quart baking dish (a deep-dish pie plate works too)
- Cut the puff pastry sheet into strips with a pastry cutter or pizza cutter. Depending on the width or diameter of your baking dish, you may need to roll out the puff pastry a little to fit. Now layer on the strips over the stew, as nicely as you can, forming a lattice top. Trim any overhanging edges. Or, if you'd rather not do this, just place the puff pastry sheet over the stew and cut a few slits in the middle, as you would for a pie.
- Place the Guinness Pie in the oven and bake 30 minutes or until the puff pastry is all golden and the stew is bubbling around the edges.
- Remove from the oven and serve hot.
Andrea
Really surprised how well this came out. As I was cooking the stew I didn’t care for the flavor, but just cooked it longer as advised to cook off more alcohol. I used tofu, but froze it the day before and thawed it overnight in the fridge. The tofu had great texture of rim doing that and soaked up amazing flavors in the stew. Even my husband who doesn’t care for tofu normally loved it.
I cooked the stew in the morning, then let it rest in the fridge all day, put the puff pastry crust on in the evening and baked it. The lattice is harder to do than I anticipated.
Looking forward to making again! Thank you for the great recipe!