Instant Pot EASY Hearty Stew
I know it’s not “stew season” as summer is just around the corner, but this Easy Instant Pot Hearty Stew is still a staple in our weekly meal prep! It’s comforting, delicious, and filling. This recipe makes enough for 6 large meals, so usually we will make it fresh for dinner and then make 2 lunches out of it. Stew is also one of those things that just gets tastier with time 🙂
This recipe was the first recipe I tried with my Instant Pot. I don’t know why it took me so long to start using my Instant Pot… about 2.5 years to be exact. I bought it on sale (for like $60?!) and it literally sat in my cupboard for that long! For some reason I thought the Instant Pot was very time and labor intensive – boy was I wrong. It’s now one of my favorite cooking methods! Although I have yet to try the yogurt setting… Anyways I promise that more Instant Pot recipes will be coming soon!
This stew is such a great meal prep recipe because it tastes delicious, has good quality carbohydrates (potatoes), protein (beef), good fats (olive oil), and lots of vegetables! It’s a very nutritionally well-rounded lunch or dinner recipe. It is also totally customizable, so here are some tips to make the stew exactly how you like:
- Vegetarian Stew: substitute beef with 1 can of black beans and 1 can of chickpeas, and substitute beef broth with vegetable broth.
- Vegetable Broth: to continue from point #1, when using vegetable broth I usually recommend increasing the balsamic vinegar or red wine to 1/4 cup, and adding some extra garlic, thyme, and rosemary. You can also add a splash of soy sauce, which increases the umami flavor.
- Different Vegetables: feel free to mix it up depending on your preferences, and what you have in the fridge! For example, you can use sweet potatoes/yams, corn, peas, beans, kale, spinach, cauliflower, the list goes on!
Okay, let’s get started!
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 80 mins (but completely hands-off, except for searing the meat!)
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2-4 pounds of rump or chuck or blade roast, trimmed of excess fat
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 4-5 cloves of garlic, roughly minced
- 1-2 beets
- 5-6 small potatoes, halved
- 4 large carrots, chopped
- 3 stalks celery, chopped
- 2-3 tbsp balsamic vinegar or red wine
- 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- A few sprigs of fresh thyme
- A few sprigs of fresh rosemary
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 900 mL beef broth
- *I also threw in ~1 cup of frozen corn at the end for the sole purpose of cooling the stew down so we could eat it faster LOL
Instructions:
- Set Instant Pot to “saute”, and heat olive oil
- Season roast with salt and pepper, and sear on all sides until browned
- Add the onions, garlic, beets, potatoes, carrots, celery, balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, brown sugar, thyme, rosemary, black pepper, and beef broth. Place lid on Instant pot with steam valve closed.
- Set Instant Pot to ‘manual’ pressure cook mode for 60 minutes on ‘high’ pressure.
- Once the 60 minutes is complete, allow the pressure to release naturally for 15-20 minutes before releasing remaining pressure.
- Carefully remove the lid and enjoy!
We hope you enjoy this recipe! Please comment below and share on social media if you do 🙂 @vancouverdietitians