Here Come The Irish

What a day, what a day. Last night I was at the Brutal Knights show, and didn't get home til late. I slept in, had my usual mug of hot lemon water, and went for a run. I often try and bring some stale flatbreads or bread to feed the ducks and Canadian geese I see along my way. When I got home, I made some orange, carrot and ginger juice, and headed off to hot yoga. So I had a long day and wanted a substantial meal for dinner. Since St. Patrick's Day is coming up, I decided to make Irish stew and soda bread! The stew is inspired from this recipe from FatFree Vegan http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2009/03/irish-white-bean-and-cabbage-stew.html

Irish Stew

6 cups of vegetable stock
1 cup of water
2 large potatoes
3 very large carrots
1 large onion
3 stalks of celery
1/3 of a cup of barley
1 tsp of ainse
1 tsp of thyme
black pepper
2 tomatoes, chopped
fresh parsley


Chop the carrot, onion, potato, celery, and veggie stock. Put in a large soup pot.
Add barley and seasonings, cover, and bring to a boil.
Once it is boiling nicely, reduce heat to medium, and simmer for 45 minutes.
For the last 15 minutes, remove the lid of the pot and add the parsley and tomatoes.
While it's cooking...make the bread!





Soda Bread


Dry Ingredients

3/4 of a cup of kamut flour
1/3 of a cup of flax meal
1/3 of a cup of quinoa flour
1/3 of a cup of cornmeal
1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of baking powder


Wet Ingredients

1 banana
3/4 of a cup of almond milk
1 tsp of apple cider vinegar
4 tbsp of olive oil


Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl.
In another, combine the milk and cider, then add a mashed banana (this is a big deviation from traditional soda bread, but I was too lazy to make a flax egg replacer. Add the olive oil, and mix well.

Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry, stirring with a spatula. I had to add more flour to thicken the mixture. Shape into a ball, sprinkle flour onto a baking pan, and then put the dough onto it. Cut a cross on the surface of the dough to make it officially Irish soda bread! There are several main different types of soda bread, this is closer to "wheaten bread" from Northern Ireland. The cross on the top of the loaf was apparently to ward off evil.


I'm not entirely satisfied with the bread, it was definitely an experiment because I made it without wheat flours, but it was tasty and I'd make it again.