Smooth operator: 17 dreamy recipes with Guinness

Irish stout adds a delicious, dark richness to dishes from traditional stews and hearty pies to chocolate cakes and heady cocktails - St Patrick's Day never tasted better

It has been a whole 12 months: St Patrick's Day 2020 was one of the first celebrations to be widely cancelled because of Covid, leaving a lot of people with surplus Guinness and no one to drink it with. Who imagined we would be in the same situation a year on?

Clearly some people only drink Guinness on St Patrick's Day. Pre-pandemic, an estimated average of 13m pints of the stuff were poured worldwide each year on 17 March. But if you once again find yourself with more Guinness than you know what to do with - and first and foremost, I suggest that you try simply drinking it - there are a number of recipes that employ the good Irish stout as a key ingredient. Here are 17 of the best for this 17 March.