Southern Style Celtic Stew

 We've had days of lovely spring-like weather this month. It's highly motivating, until the next front pushes through and reminds us that winter is still here. Our winter menus include a lot of soup for lunch and stews for dinner. It was a recent cold weather menu planning that prompted me to try a variation on one of my ancestral cuisine meals - Celtic Lamb Stew. 

The base recipe for that stew makes it really easy to adapt:

• 1 pound meat
• 1 cup legumes
• 1/4 pound chopped nuts
• 1/4 pound butter
• 1 cup onions
• 1 and 1/2 cups greens
• 3 cups liquid
• 1/2 tbsp salt
• 1/2 tbsp mustard seeds

For the original recipe, I offered two variations: a pre-Roman-invasion version and a post-Roman version. My southern style uses ingredients common to the region of the world I live in, the southeastern U.S.

Southern style Celtic stew and yeast-raised cornmeal rolls

Southern Style Celtic Stew

• 1 pound ground pork
• 1 cup cowpeas (I used homegrown Ozark Razorback)
• 1/4 pound chopped pecans (our premier southern tree nut)
• 1/4 pound butter
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 1 and 1/2 collard greens (from the greenhouse)
• 3 cups water
• 1/2 tbsp salt
• 1/2 tbsp mustard seeds

Soak the peas overnight. Next day, discard the soaking water and rinse the peas. Melt half butter in a stew pot and toast nuts. Add remaining butter and onions, and cook for 5 minutes. Add meat and mustard seeds. Brown meat. Add greens and soaked cowpeas, stir till greens are wilted. Add water. Simmer until the peas are tender, about 40 - 45 minutes.

Recipe notes

• Serves 4 as a main course. We got two meals out of it. Usually, I add any leftovers to the soup pot, but there were no leftovers. 
• The nuts add interesting flavor and a hearty texture without being crunchy. 

Yeast-raised Cornmeal Rolls

Skillet cornbread is typically southern, but I was curious to try a yeast-raised version for something different. The cornmeal is homegrown and home milled.

• 1 cup warm water, milk, or whey
• 2 tsp dried yeast
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 & 1/2 cup corn flour (finer than corn meal)
• 1 & 1/2 cup flour (I used unbleached)
• 1/4 cup softened butter
• 1/2 tbsp salt

I actually mixed the dough in my bread machine. To do it by hand, add the yeast and sugar to the warm liquid and let proof. Then stir in the flours, salt, and butter and mix. Knead well and let rise until doubled. 

Shape rolls and let rise again. Bake 400°F (200°C) for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve plain or with butter.

Recipe notes

• The other thing that's typically southern about cornbread is to add so much sugar so that it tastes more like cake than bread. Most people love this, but I don't. Unless I'm eating it for dessert, I want my cornbread to taste like corn, especially because cornmeal from homegrown corn is exceptionally tasty. Eating chili or stew with cake doesn't appeal to me. My skillet cornbread contains no sugar, and for this recipe, I used only enough to feed the yeast. 
• This doesn't rise as much as wheat bread dough, but it rises well enough for a good texture.

With our temps gradually creeping upward, I'm not sure how much longer I'll be serving stews and soups. We haven't tired of them yet, but I am looking forward to daily fresh garden salads when growing season arrives.

What about you? Does your menu change with the seasons? Any favorites you'd care to share?

Southern Style Celtic Stew © 2026 by Leigh

at https://www.5acresandadream.com