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Instant Pot Beef Stew

Throw together this Instant Pot Beef Stew from http://meatified.com for an easy, weeknight meal that's a happy-tummy, comfort-food bowl of goodness!
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5 from 6 reviews

Throw together this Instant Pot Beef Stew for an easy, weeknight meal that’s a happy-tummy, comfort-food bowl of goodness!

Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 lbs / 900 g beef stew meat
  • 2 – 3 tbsp / 30 – 45 ml avocado oil or fat of choice
  • 2 tsp / 10 g fine sea salt
  • 2 cups / 480 ml beef broth
  • 1/2 – 1 cup / 120 – 240 ml pumpkin puree or butternut squash puree, see notes
  • 1 tbsp / 15 ml apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tsp / 5 g garlic powder
  • 1 tsp / 1 g dried rosemary
  • 1 tsp / 1 g dried thyme
  • 1 lb / 454 g carrots, peeled & chopped into 1 inch pieces OR baby carrots
  • 1 lb / 454 g parsnips, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
  • 12 oz / 340 g peeled fresh OR frozen pearl onions, or onions sliced into chunky half moons
  • 1 – 2 tbsp / 9 – 18 g arrowroot starch / flour, see notes

Instructions

BROWN: Check the stew beef over and trim off any large pieces of hard fat or silver skin. Make sure it’s chopped into even, bite size pieces. In a large fry pan over medium heat, brown the stew beef (see notes). First, cook the beef until it has released its juices, then drain those from the pan and add them to the 6 quart Instant Pot insert. Once drained, add the avocado oil or fat of choice and the salt to the pan and toss the beef to coat. Continue to cook, stirring every few minutes so that the beef evenly browns on all sides. Once browned evenly, transfer the beef to the Instant Pot.

LAYER: Add the broth, pumpkin puree or butternut squash puree, apple cider vinegar, garlic powder, dried rosemary and dried thyme to the Instant Pot. Stir through to combine. Add the carrots, parsnips and pearl onions to the Instant Pot.

PRESSURE COOK: Close and lock the lid. Press the MEAT / STEW button and set cooking time to 35 minutes. Once the time is up, quick release the pressure carefully.

THICKEN: Release and remove the Instant Pot lid. Turn on the SAUTÉ function. Taste and add additional salt, if needed. Mix the arrowroot starch up with a little water into a slurry and stir it through the stew. Cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, until the starch has thickened the stew, then turn off the SAUTÉ function. Remove the stainless steel insert from the Instant Pot and transfer it to a silicone trivet to rest for a few minutes, then stir and serve immediately.

Equipment

Notes

When it comes to browning the beef, you could use the SAUTÉ function of the Instant Pot, but I choose not to here for a few reasons:

1) Since this recipe uses 2 lbs of beef and the diameter of the 6 quart Instant Pot insert is a little shy of 8 inches / 20 cm, you’d have to work in batches to get it all browned nicely. I find it much easier to throw everything into a large fry pan or skillet than repeat the browning step multiple times in the Instant Pot, personally.
2) Stew beef gives off a lot of liquid that inhibits browning. Since we want both the flavor from the liquid, but also need a dry pan with plenty of fat to brown the beef, it’s easier to cook the beef in a large pan, drain the liquid into the Instant Pot, then continue to brown and caramelize the beef to our liking.

I’ve made this a few times and you can definitely tell when the pumpkin puree or butternut squash puree is left out: it adds a little extra savory flavor and helps to thicken things up a little. If you go for the larger amount of puree, then you may not want to thicken so much in the final step. Start with the smaller amount of arrowroot starch and then add extra if you think it’s needed.

Find it online: https://meatified.com/instant-pot-beef-stew-aip/