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Instant Pot Spring Vegetable Beef Stew. Tender pressure cooker stew, with spring vegetables added in at the end for a fresh taste of the season.
I have a sale on chuck roast, a bundle of late asparagus, and a pile of radishes. It's time for spring beef stew!
(Or, at least, it was time, back when I wrote this recipe. It's been on the shelf for about a month, and I'm finally getting it published. Sorry for the delay, and if you have to substitute early summer green beans for the asparagus, go for it.)
This recipe follows my pressure cooked beef stew technique, which I've used many times before. That's the great thing about basic techniques - once you learn them, you can mix and match flavor profiles to make them into a kaleidoscope of recipes.
Why brown on one side
There's a lot of flavor in browned beef - it adds depth and body to the stew. So I don't want to skip the browning step. But, the old school approach of browning all sides of the beef cubes takes forever, especially with the narrow width of a pressure cooker. I mean, it's going to take three batches of beef to not crowd the pot, and get it to really brown, not just steam. If each batch needs searing on multiple sides…yeah. Like I said, forever. So, I short cut the process by only browning one side of the beef cube. That gives me what the French call Fond, the browned bits on the bottom of the pot that we scrape into the stew to build flavor.
Why not pressure cook the asparagus and peas?
Asparagus and sliced radishes don't take long to cook - five minutes of simmering - and pressure cooking would just destroy them. I pressure cook the beef, let the pressure come down, then set my Instant Pot to sauté mode and add the tender spring vegetables. They cooked through in about five minutes, and retain a lot of their spring crunch.
Recipe: Instant Pot Spring Vegetable Beef Stew
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Instant Pot Spring Vegetable Beef Stew
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 3 quarts of stew
Description
Instant Pot Spring Vegetable Beef Stew. Tender pressure cooker stew, with spring vegetables added in at the end for a fresh taste of the season.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 3 pounds boneless beef chuck roast, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1 large carrot, peeled and sliced into ½-inch thick rounds
- 8 ounces baby portobello mushrooms, cleaned and quartered (or use white mushrooms)
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ cup red wine
- 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
- 1 cup beef broth (or chicken broth, preferably homemade, or use store-bought low sodium broth)
- ½ teaspoon salt (if using homemade broth)
- 8 ounces asparagus, tough end trimmed, cut into 2-inch lengths
- ¼ cup frozen peas
- 8 ounces Radishes, sliced (plus a few more for garnish)
- Minced parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Sear the beef in batches: Heat the vegetable oil in an Instant Pot set to Sauté mode adjusted to high until the oil shimmers. (Use medium-high heat with a stovetop PC). While the pot heats, sprinkle the beef cubes with 1 teaspoon of salt, chili powder, and black pepper. Add ½ of the beef to the pot in a loose single layer and sear until well browned on one side, about 3 minutes. (Don't crowd the pot or the beef will steam, not brown). Transfer the browned beef to a bowl, add the remaining half of the beef to the pot, and sear until browned on one side, another 3 minutes. Again, transfer the browned beef to the bowl.
- Sauté the aromatics and deglaze the pot with wine: Add the onion, carrot, mushrooms, and garlic to the pot and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt. Sauté until the onions soften and the mushrooms start to brown a little, about 5 minutes, scraping the bottom of the pot occasionally with a flat edged wooden spoon to loosen any browned bits of beef or onion. Stir in the wine, bring it to a simmer, and simmer for 1 minute to boil off some of the alcohol. Scrape the bottom of the pot again to release any browned bits.
- Everything into the pot: Stir in the beef and any juices left in the bowl. Add the tomatoes, then stir in the beef broth, and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt if using homemade broth.
- Pressure cook the stew for 15 minutes with a natural release: Lock the lid on the pressure cooker. Cook at high pressure for 15 minutes in an electric pressure cooker ("Manual" or "Pressure Cook" mode in an Instant Pot), or for 12 minutes in a stovetop PC. Let the pressure come down naturally, about 20 more minutes. (If you're in a hurry, you can quick release any remaining pressure after 15 minutes.) Remove the lid, tilting it away from you to avoid the hot steam.
- Simmer and serve: Add the asparagus, peas, and sliced radishes to the pot, and set it to Sauté mode adjusted to low. Simmer until the asparagus is tender to the bite, about five minutes. Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with a few slices of fresh radish and some minced parsley, serve, and enjoy!
Notes
Don't want to brown the beef? If you insist, you can skip it. It really does add a lot of flavor to the stew, though, so only skip it if you're under serious time pressure.
Tools
6 quart or larger pressure cooker (I love my Instant Pot 6-Quart Pressure Cooker)
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 65 minutes
- Category: Sunday Dinner
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: American
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Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1.5 cups
- Calories: 295
- Sugar: 3.6 g
- Sodium: 529.4 mg
- Fat: 11.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 8.9 g
- Protein: 37.7 g
- Cholesterol: 125.8 mg
What do you think?
Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.
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Mike Vrobel says
Thanks!
Jake Gill says
That looks amazing! I love the idea of asparagus in a stew.