Today is the perfect day for a bowl of this Instant Pot Beef Stew. It is very rare that the schools ever get shut down for snow here in the Salt Lake Valley. Before today, I could only recall one other time that this has happened in my 22 years as a mother. That was until today.
We received 7 inches of snow at our home overnight. It is also suppose to continue through today. I got my automated call from the school district at 6 am for the news of the snow day. Since I work at my daughters school, that also meant no work for me either.
After we told my daughter about the call, she was extremely disappointed and wanted to go to school. It’s not the response you would expect from most kids, but it was exactly what we would expect from our daughter on the Autism Spectrum.
On days like this, I just want to snuggle up with a mug of hot chocolate or a bowl of hot soup or stew. Then I just want to relax and have a movie day. This instant pot beef stew recipe is perfect for just such a day. With the method of cooking it in the Instant Pot, it also makes this ready to eat in under an hour.
Instant Pot Beef Stew
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 to 1 1/2 lbs stew meat
- 1 lb potatoes, peel and diced
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 3 medium carrots, cut in 1/2 inch pieces
- 1 cup beef broth
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 (14 oz) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch + 1 Tbsp cold water
Instructions
- Turn the Instant Pot on to the saute. When the display says HOT add in the olive oil along with the meat in one layer and let it brown for 5 minutes on one side. Stir and cook for another 5 minutes on the other side.
- Turn off the pot and pour in the beef broth. Scrape up all the browned bits on the bottom of the pot. Mix in the salt, sugar and Worcestershire sauce.
- Add in all the vegetables and pour in the can of crushed tomatoes over them. Don’t stir.
- Place the lid on the Instant Pot making sure the valve is turned to seal. Push the meat/stew button and adjust the time to 30 minutes. If your pot doesn’t have a meat/stew button, then set to manual for 30 minutes.
- Allow the pressure release naturally for at least 10 minutes and switch to a manual release or if you have more time you can do a full natural pressure release.
- Remove the lid and stir. If the stew needs thickening, stir together 1 Tbsp of cornstarch with 1 Tbsp of cold water in a small bowl. Stir the mixture into the stew and turn the pot onto the saute. Stir until stew and cook for about a minute until thickened. Serves 4-5.
Recipe adapted from 365 days of Slow + Pressure Cooking.