We were in Ireland, Carrickfergus to be exact, so we thought that we would cook one of Ireland's traditional dishes. Irish Stew to be exact.

Ingredients - Serves 2-3

• 2 pounds potatoes
• 1 pound mutton or lamb(cut into large chunks)
• 1 large onion
• 1 pound carrots
• 1 bunch Parsley
• Few sprigs of Thyme
• 2 desert spoons of split red lentils
• 1 gluten free vegetable stock cube
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon salt to taste
• 1 teaspoon pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons corn flour to thicken

Serve with roasted carrots - roasted in olive oil and basil and then glazed with a drizzle of honey.

Method

Cut the chunks of onion and lamb into large chunks. This is a long slow cook so large chunks of meat and vegetables works best. We used Chantenay carrots in our recipe as they can be put into the dish whole.

Add the 2 tablespoons of oil to the cooking pot and cook the onions along with the gluten free stock cube, salt and pepper. When the onions have gone transparent add the lamb, along with the split red lentils and carrots. Cover the meat with the water and add a few sprigs of thyme along with the chopped parsley. Put into a slow cooker or a Mr D Thermal cooker, or into an oven set at 100° C and cook for two or three hours.

You can either cook the potatoes in with the stew or cook them separate. We like to cook our potatoes separate as we find that potatoes leach starch into the water that we personally do not like.

After 2-3 hours thicken the gravy with cornflour and add the potatoes. Serve with the roasted carrots and a sprig of parsley.

Top Tip

With chantenay carrots, leave them whole as they are a good size for a dish like Irish Stew. With other carrots always cut into batons, for some reason they taste better than coins.