Flemish beef stew with St. Bernadus was one of the best things I ate on my trip to Belgium. Beef braised in Belgian beer with carrots and gingerbread cookies (!), Flemish stew is full of fantastic flavor and easy to make in my Instant Pot.
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My first dinner in Belgium was at the punny-named Nüetnigenough in Brussels. That's where I had my favorite dish, Flemish beef stew with St. Bernadus. (That's saying a lot - there was a lot of fantastic food in Belgium). Flemish beef stew is made with Belgian beer and chunks of carrot and gingerbread loaf - the gingerbread was a nice touch, with little cubes of sweet bread mixed in with the meat. And of course, this being Belgium, it is served with frites - Belgian fries - to dip in the stew. At home, I made do with air fryer steak fries - Belgian frites are bigger than our typical American French fries, and steak fries are closer to frites than our regular fries.
Flemish Beef Stew ingredients notes
- Beef: Chuck roast is my favorite stewing beef, but boneless short ribs and bottom round both make good substitutes.
- Belgian beer: The original recipe was made with St. Bernadus abt 12, a Belgian quadrupel-style ale. Belgian beers are sweet and malty, and any Belgian dubbel, trippel, or quaddrupel will work in this recipe. If you can't find Belgian beer, a brown ale, stout, or porter will work.
- Non-alcoholic version: If you can't (or won't) have any alcohol, substitute extra beef broth for the beer, and add a tablespoon of brown sugar to duplicate the sweet flavor of Belgian beer.
- Biscoff cookies are my substitute for gingerbread loaf. They have a similar gingery flavor to the gingerbread loaf in the original recipe. If you have a gingerbread loaf, substitute 4 ounces worth for the Biscoff cookies. Or, if you can't find Biscoff cookies, look for Belgian speculoos cookies. (Biscoff is a specific brand of speculoos cookies.) If you can't find those, use gingerbread cookies.
- Mustard - I use Dijon, but a grainy mustard would also work.
- Carrots: The carrots are optional. They are not in all the Flemish stew recipes I found, but they were in the bowl at Nüetnigenough, and I always enjoy carrots in a stew, so I put them in there.
Flemish Beef Stew - Step by Step Pictures
Brown the beef
Melt the butter, then brown the beef cubes on one side in 3 batches. Don't crowd the pot. (My 7.5-quart wide pot was able to do this in two batches.)
Sauté the onions, garlic, and thyme
Move the browned beef cubes to a bowl, then add the onions, garlic, and thyme to the pot, and sprinkle with salt. Sauté until the onion softens. Add the beer and simmer for a minute to boil off some of the alcohol.
Everything in the pot
Stir in the browned beef cubes, broth, carrots, and mustard. Lay the cookies on top.
Pressure cook for 30 minutes with a Natural Release
Lock the lid and pressure cook on high for 30 minutes, then let the pressure come down naturally (about 30 minutes more). Stir everything together (and stir in the cornstarch slurry if you want to thicken the stew), serve, and enjoy!
Tips and tricks
- I brown my beef on one side before stewing. Browning gives the stew extra flavor - the fond, the browned bits that stick to the bottom of the pot, melt into the stew. I don't want to spend all day browning the beef on all sides, like traditional recipes recommend. So I brown it on one side in batches to avoid crowding the pan.
- I brown my beef in batches. If the pot is crowded, the beef doesn't brown. Depending on the width of your pot, this will take two or three batches. A traditional 6-quart Instant Pot will fit about a pound per batch, or 3 batches. An 8-quart Instant Pot will take two batches. My new 7.5-quart wide Instant Pot seared the beef in two batches without crowding.
- If your browned bits are looking a little burnt, add ½ cup of the beer to the pot with the onions, and scrape the browned bits loose. Simmer until the liquid boils off, then sauté the onions until they soften.
- The cornstarch slurry is to thicken the stew. Sealed pressure cookers don't allow evaporation, so the stew will be thin. If you're OK with that, you can skip the slurry.
Instant Pot Flemish Beef Stew Recipe
- Total Time: 0 hours
- Yield: 4 quarts of stew 1x
Description
Instant Pot Flemish Beef Stew: Flemish beef stew with St. Bernadus was one of the best things I ate on my trip to Belgium. Beef braised in Belgian beer with carrots and gingerbread cookies (!), Flemish stew is full of fantastic flavor and easy to make in my Instant Pot.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3 pounds chuck roast, cut into 1 ½-inch to 2-inch cubes
- 1½ teaspoons fine sea salt
- ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried thyme)
- 11-ounce (33cl) bottle of Belgian beer (preferably a quadrupel, dubbel, or brown ale)
- 1 cup beef broth (preferably homemade beef broth)
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt (use ½ teaspoon with store-bought broth)
- 3 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces (or 1 pound baby carrots)
- 1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard
- 3 ounces Biscoff cookies (about 12 cookies)
- ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Cornstarch slurry (optional)
- ¼ cup water
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
Instructions
- Sear the beef in three batches: Heat the butter oil in an Instant Pot using Sauté mode - High. (Use medium-high heat with a stovetop PC.) While the butter melts, sprinkle the beef cubes with 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper. Once the butter has melted and stopped foaming, add ⅓ of the beef and sear until well browned on one side, about 3 minutes. (Don't crowd the pot, or the beef will steam, not brown). Remove the browned beef to a bowl. Add the second batch of beef to the pot and sear until browned on one side, about 3 more minutes, then transfer to the bowl. Repeat with the remaining beef: brown on one side, then transfer to the bowl with the rest of the beef.
- Sauté the aromatics: Add the onion and garlic, sprinkle with the ½ teaspoon salt, and add the thyme sprigs. Sauté until the onions soften, about 8 minutes, scraping the bottom of the pot occasionally to loosen any browned bits of beef. Pour the beer into the pot, bring to a simmer, and simmer for 1 minute. Stir in the beef and any juices from the bowl, then add the beef broth and 1 teaspoon of salt. Scrape the bottom of the pot one last time to ensure nothing is sticking. Stir in the carrots and mustard, then spread the cookies on the top in a single layer.
- Pressure cook the stew for 30 minutes with a natural release: Lock the lid on the pressure cooker and cook at high pressure for 30 minutes in an Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker or for 25 minutes in a stovetop PC. (Use Manual, Pressure Cook, or Pressure Cook-custom mode in an Instant Pot.) When the cooking time finishes, let the pressure come down naturally, about 30 minutes. (If you are in a hurry, you can quick-release any remaining pressure after 15 minutes.)
- Thicken and serve: Unlock the pressure cooker lid. Stir the cookies into the stew, breaking up any large pieces of cookie (they will be soaked through and come apart easily). If using the cornstarch slurry, whisk the water and cornstarch together, and then stir the cornstarch slurry into the stew. Serve and enjoy!Â
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 1.5 hours
- Category: Sunday Dinner
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: Belgian
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Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 cups
- Calories: 514
- Sugar: 4.6 g
- Sodium: 768.2 mg
- Fat: 33.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 15 g
- Fiber: 1.8 g
- Protein: 31.5 g
- Cholesterol: 128.6 mg
What to serve with Flemish Beef Stew
Frites (French fries) with mayonnaise are the traditional accompaniment - I use my Air Fryer Frozen Fries technique. If you want mashed potatoes, try using my Instant Pot Stamppot or Instant Pot Hutspot recipe, but call it stoemp like the Belgians do. Or use regular Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes.
Scaling
This recipe needs an 8-quart pressure cooker if you want to double it. Cut all the ingredients in half, and this recipe will fit in a 3-quart pressure cooker. The cooking time does not change; it takes the same amount of time to cook each piece of stew meat.
Storage
Stew makes fantastic leftovers - I think it tastes better the second day, after the flavors have had time to mingle. Sometimes I'll make a pot the day before, so I can rest it overnight, then reheat it for serving. Store stew for longer in sealed containers (I use 2-cup containers for single serving sizes). They will last for a few days in the refrigerator, or for months in the freezer.
Related Posts
If you're looking for more beef stews, try my Instant Pot Easy Beef Stew, Instant Pot Provencal Beef Stew (Beef Daube Provencal), Instant Pot Beef Stew with Spanish Smoked Paprika, or Instant Pot Beef and Black-Eyed Pea Stew. For more Belgian recipes, try my Instant Pot Waterzooi (Flemish chicken and vegetable stew with cream sauce).
For some other international flavors, try my Instant Pot Colombian Beef Short Rib Soup.
If you're looking for something else, here is my index of Instant Pot and Pressure Cooker Recipes.
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Mike Vrobel says
Travel to Belgium from the comfort of your own kitchen - give it a try!
Heidi Ann Hammons says
Would like to substitute something healthier for the cookies. I hate to break with tradition and all that, but can't do the sugar. Fresh ginger, maybe?
Mike Vrobel says
The sweet flavor is much more noticeable than the ginger - I'd skip it if you don't want to use the cookies.