Hearty Vegan Mushroom Stew

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil (optional, see note below)
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 6 cups crimini mushrooms
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 1/4 cups vegetable broth
• 4 carrots, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 3 yellow potatoes, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 4 teaspoons vegan Worcestershire sauce (see note below for brand suggestions)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 1/2 cups frozen peas
• 2 teaspoons dried parsley

Slurry

• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons arrowroot starch or cornstarch

Instructions

Instant Pot Method:

• Set your Instant Pot to sauté and add oil OR water to pot. Once heated, add the onions and sauté until softened, about 3-4 minutes.
• Add the mushrooms and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
• Add salt, thyme and black pepper and stir to coat the mushrooms and onions.
• Add tomato paste and stir again. Add broth and stir to combine everything, be sure scrape up any bits that have stuck to the bottom of the pot.
• Add carrots, potatoes, vegan Worcestershire sauce, and stir once again. Cancel saute function.
• Add bay leaf, place and lock lid onto the pot and close the pressure release valve. Set to pressure cook for 12 minutes. Pot will take about 10 minutes to come to pressure.
• While the stew is pressure cooking, make the slurry by whisking the arrowroot starch (or cornstarch) and water in a small bowl. Set aside.
• When the pressure cooking time has ended, press cancel and open the pressure release valve to manually release the pressure.
• Once pressure has been released and the float valve pin has dropped, slowly unlock and remove the lid. Remove the bay leaf and stir the mixture so everything recombines.
• Give slurry a quick whisk to recombine and stir it into the stew.
• Stir in frozen peas and dried parsley.

Stove Top Method:

• Over medium high heat and add oil OR water to a large pot. Once heated, add the onions and saute until softened, about 3-4 minutes.
• Add the mushrooms and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
• Add salt, thyme and black pepper and stir to coat the mushrooms and onions.
• Add tomato paste and stir again. Add broth and stir to combine everything, be sure scrape up any bits that have stuck to the bottom of the pot.
• Add carrots, potatoes, vegan Worcestershire sauce, and stir once again. Add bay leaf and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn heat down to low, cover pot, and simmer until carrots and potatoes are fork tender. This will roughly take 20-minutes.
• While the stew is simmering, make the slurry by whisking the arrowroot starch (or cornstarch) and water in a small bowl. Set aside.
• Once the stew is cooked, remove bay leaf. Give slurry a quick whisk to recombine and stir it into the stew.
• Stir in frozen peas and dried parsley. Remove pot from heat. Serve.

Notes

• If you are oil-free, the onions and mushrooms can also be sautéed in water instead of the oil.
• When preparing the mushrooms, I cut smaller mushrooms in half, and larger mushrooms into quarters and sometimes sixths or even eighths. The important thing is that the pieces are bite-size. Have a look at the image above with all the ingredients to get an idea of how the pieces are cut.
• Be sure that the Worcestershire sauce you're using is vegan and, if needed, gluten-free (regular Worcestershire sauce is not vegan or vegetarian and not all brands are gluten-free). This brand is both vegan and gluten free (Amazon link). More suggestions are: Annie's Naturals and 365 Everyday Value (Whole Foods' brand) (both of these are vegan but NOT gluten-free). The brand I use that is both vegan AND gluten-free is The Wizard's.
• See above for info on storing leftovers and freezing.
• Nutrition info is for 1 serving (of 4) prepared as the recipe is written (using water to saute and arrowroot starch for the slurry). Data below is only to be used as a rough guide. Click to learn how nutrition info is determined on this website.