One of our favourite winter recipes in a hearty stew. It’s cozy, easy to make, and packed with nutritious ingredients. The perfect balance of umami, savoury, salty, acidic and sweet flavours — it’s going to be your new go-to winter recipe. Made with a smooth and creamy base of vegetable broth, red wine, soy sauce, marmite, and a medley of spices and herbs coating chunks of mushroom, potato, carrots, and green peas.

Inspired by a meal Kat used to enjoy as a kid, this Hearty Mushroom Stew is our version of a Classic American Beef Stew. There are stew recipes in most cultures around the world. The American version which typically consists of beef, potatoes, carrots, and peas has historically taken inspiration from French and English cuisines.

Top tips for making Hearty Mushroom Stew:

• Prep your ingredients. When making recipes like soups and stews the steps can move quickly. To ensure nothing is overcooked, we like to prep all of our ingredients before starting the recipe. That way when a it tell you to add in the potatoes, all you have to do is add them to a pot, instead of rushing to measure and cut them before the next step.
• Brown the mushrooms. For the best flavour and texture from the mushrooms cook them until they are a deep golden colour on all sides.
• Deglaze with red wine. When cooking little bits of food particles cook onto the bottom of the pan, these little bits are a source of a LOT of flavour. We don’t want to leave all that delicious built up flavour on the bottom of the pot. We deglaze our pan with red wine which simply means adding wine to the bottom of the pan and loosing all that flavour from cooking the mushrooms. Doing this makes cleaning your pot easier AND boost the flavour to new heights.
• Use a flavourful vegetable broth. Vegetable broth is a large portion of the base of this vegan stew recipe. It’s important to pick a flavourful broth or bouillon paste that you love.
• Thicken with cornstarch. Stews are creamy and we thickened ours with a cornstarch slurry. It doesn’t alter the flavour and it provides just enough starch to thicken this vegetarian stew.
• Allow to simmer to develop flavour. The longer you let this stew recipe simmer over low heat the deeper the flavour will be.

About the ingredients and tools:

The key to a delicious stew is developing balance and layers of flavours developed over time.

• Onions – It’s a component in almost all soups and stews for a reason. Onion adds a great flavour to this delicious vegan dish. As a bonus onions contain antioxidants and plant compounds that help fight inflammation.
• Mushrooms – The heart of this recipe lies with the mushrooms! You can use a medley of different mushroom varieties but our go-to is a classic cremini mushroom mix. Feel like changing it up? Try subbing out the cremini mushrooms and making a portobello stew with portobello mushrooms.
• Herbs & Spices – We can’t forget the spices and herbs, as they’re what give this stew additional flavour and depth.
• Red Wine – We use a nice vegan red wine to de-glaze our pot to ensure we get all that rich flavour cooked onto the bottom. Be sure to double check that the wine you pick is vegan.
• Tomato Paste – Umami, acidic, and sweet, tomato paste is key to a rich and delicious vegan or vegetarian stew.
• Vegetable Broth – Use something with a deep and rich flavour. We use Better than Bouillon Seasoned Vegetable Base.
• Veggies – Fill your stew with hearty vegetables like potatoes, carrots, and green peas.
• Soy Sauce & Marmite – The salty and umami hit of flavour this meatless stew calls for. Both ingredients give the stew flavours similar to what beef does in the classic.
• Cornstarch – For that creamy consistency that clings to every vegetable that stew is known for we use a cornstarch slurry to just slightly thicken the base.

The ingredient list may be a bit longer, but the cooking tools needed are minimal! Aside from the kitchen basics like a wooden spoon, chef’s knife and cutting board, all you need is:

• Heavy-Bottomed Pot – In addition to the basics having a heavy bottomed pot is helpful. However if you don’t have one you can use any large pot that you have.

Recipe FAQ:

Can I add different vegetables or a protein to this?

Yes! Of course when you alter a recipe we cannot guarantee that it will turn out as we haven’t tested it in that particular way. However with some testing you can probably swap out veggies for others and add some beans or tempeh for protein.

How do you store stew?

Store any leftovers in the fridge in an air-tight container for up to 3 days. Reheat on the stove over medium heat or in the microwave. If using the stove, you may need to add some liquid to the stew as it may have thickened in the fridge.

Can you freeze it?

You can freeze it for long-term storage. Store leftovers in the freezer in an air-tight container for up to 3 months. Reheat on the stove over medium heat until warm all the way through.