Pressure Cooker Beef Stew with Root Vegetables [Instant Pot]

Pressure Cooker Beef Stew with Root Vegetables gets its flavors from the sweetness of the turnips and parsnips and can be on your table in under one hour.

Beef Stew is a warm and homey meal and makes us think of family time around the dinner table. Remember the good old days of enjoying a nice leisurely dinner and exchanging stories of our day.  That was before the new fast paced World of computers and mobile devices. Gosh and I used to think faxes were fast paced!

My favorite Beef Stew recipe (coming soon) is one that my friend Phyllis gave to me many years ago. You may remember the name, Phyllis, because she is the one who gave me the recipe for my Pressure Cooker New York Cheesecake, which started a Cheesecake craze in the pressure cooking World!

Another favorite Beef Stew recipe is Ree Drummond’s recipe. I’ve taken liberties with her recipe to make it work in the Instant Pot, Mealthy MultiPot or Pressure Cooker.

 

I love that my Pressure Cooker Beef Stew with Root Vegetables can be on my table in under one hour, instead of three and a half hours on the stove! It is awfully good on the stove though. You should try it that way, as well.

It used to be cheaper to cook your own meals, rather than to go out to eat. Prices for good food have gone way up, so most of us are on a budget and want to get the most from our money. It is often times cheaper to buy a nice big piece of Chuck Roast, rather than a package of already cut up, “Stew” meat.

Plus, I prefer to choose a beautiful Chuck Roast and cut up the meat myself. When there is a sale, I’ll buy six or more pounds of Chuck Roast(s), process the meat for various recipes and then use my FoodSaver Vacuum Sealing System and package them into two pound bags.

Some I cut for Stew, others, I slice to use in my Chinese Take-Out Beef and Broccoli or Pressure Cooker Mongolian Beef, recipes, to name a couple. I also add marinades to Foodsaver bags of meat for easy “Freezer” meals.

 

Always allow your Pressure Cooker cooking pot to fully heat up, before adding a fat. Doing so, makes your Stainless Steel pot, non-stick! So, allow your Pressure Cooker to fully  heat and then add the oil and butter.

Why both? Because, butter burns at higher temperatures, so the oil will help keep the butter from burning, but still have a nice buttery taste. Alternatively, you can use my Homemade Simple Ghee if you like as Ghee is great with higher heat.

Optional Way to Cook Onions

I love camaralized onions, but there is an extra step.

 

With this method, you would first sear the onions and then add them in with the root vegetables.

 

Therefore, if you like, you can cook the onions similarly to my Pressure Cooker Classic Pot Roast Dinner recipe, and then add them in with the root vegetables.

For this method you would first sear the onions and allow the onions to begin to caramelize by letting them sit in the very hot cooking pot. Turn them to the next side, once you see some caramelization. They will break up a bit and that is fine. Pull them out as they caramelize and set them aside for later. They will get added back into the Pressure Cooker after the meat has cooked.

After you have removed the onions, then pick up with the beef.

Otherwise, just start with the beef, follow along with the recipe card and add the onions at the same time as the root vegetables!

 

I prefer to either an Asian Potato Starch or Bob Mills Potato Starch, rather than flour, as I love the flavor it gives when coating meat and shrimp. If you don’t have any, go a head and use cornstarch.

Potato Starch Coating on Chicken Instead of Slurry

• When using the pressure cooker, more liquid than normal is needed, so the sauce often times needs to be thickened. With my “starch protection method,” the starch on the meat adheres to the meat nicely and allows the pot to come up to pressure with the little amount of liquid in the pot. As the release of the potato starch is slow, you will not get a burn notice.
• As the meat cooks and releases liquid, it also releases the starch and therefore thickens the sauce without gumming up.
• Best of all, with the nice and thickened sauce, you don’t have to worry about making a starch slurry after pressure cooking.

Pro Tip: Coating beef, pork of chicken with potato starch before cooking under pressure, ensures extra juicy meat. It also saves you the step of having to make a slurry to thicken the liquid in the pot.

 

I usually add in the garlic after browning my onion because garlic will burn quickly and onions take longer to become translucent and fragrant.

Deglazing with Beef

Your Pressure Cooker cooking pot will look like there is stuff stuck to the bottom. Smile, that is all the good flavor stuff! The stuffs Stews are made from! Grab your Spatula and the beer and let’s make a little Fond.

Since we will be cooking in a Pressure Cooker and not simmering on the stove, the alcohol won’t have a chance to burn off as much as it does on the stove.

So, dump the beer into the Instant Pot and glaze away. Grab your Spatula and scrape the bottom of the cooking pot to free the yummy bits and pieces.

Because you heated up your cooking pot before adding the oil, it became non stick and the pieces just slid right off the bottom and you are left with lovely flavors from the fond.

 

Dump in your Beef Broth and all the seasonings. I make my own Pressure Cooker Bone Broth/Stock and freeze in one cup Foodsaver pouches, so I added in three of them. The broth will defrost quickly in your pot. Make sure you use Beef Broth/Stock for this and not chicken broth/stock. This recipe needs the richness of the beef stock.

 

Try to cut the vegetables all the same size, so that they will cook evenly and look perfect on  your plat.

 

After a quick cook time, you will have a delicious Beef Stew! The beef will be so tender and the veggies perfectly crisp.

 

I like to serve this Pressure Cooker Beef Stew with Root Vegetables on top of my yummy Pressure Cooker Southern Style Cheesy Grits. If you have a second Instant Pot, Mealthy MultiPot or Pressure Cooker you could make up the grits, or you can use the Pot in Pot method with the set up like my Pressure CookerPerfectly Cooked Pot in Pot Rice recipe.

 

No need to make a starch slurry as a few good stirs will thicken up the gravy!

Kitchen Equipment and Essentials

• Instant Pot, Mealthy MultiPot or Pressure Cooker
• J.A. Henckels Classic 7-inch Hollow Edge Santoku Knife
• Amco Advanced Performance 18/10 Stainless Steel Measuring Spoons
• Culina Stackable (Dry) Stainless Steel Measuring Cups
• Anchor Hocking Glass (Liquid) Measuring Cups
• Rösle Stainless Steel Flat Whisk– a MUST have, probably my most used utensil
• Cilio Olivewood Spatula
• Rachael Ray Stoneware EVOO Oil Dispensing Bottle
• Alton Brown Salt Box
• Bellemain Porcelain Ramekins
• My FANTASTIC Teak Cutting & Charcuterie Board & Compartments
• 3.5 Quart Stainless Steel Mixing Bowl
• Potato Starch
• Pressure Cooker Southern Style Cheesy Grits

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