I love the crisp autumn air, it invokes in me a coziness that I truly love. It makes me want to snuggle up in the corner of the couch with a good book. Add in a coffee or wine (depending on the time of day) and I’m in heaven. Especially after a full day of completing all those fall homestead tasks. I crave hearty, soul-warming food such as this delicious beef stew. I also crave my roasted red pepper and sweet potato soup and a side of homemade crusty bread.
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I got the basis for this stew from Pinch of Yum and her Life-changing beef stew. I would strongly suggest you check out. She is one of my go-to food bloggers along with Half Baked Harvest which is quickly becoming my favourite. My rule of thumb is ALWAYS to try a recipe as written the first time. This enables you to get an idea of what the recipe was intended to taste like. Then you can tweak it to your own taste! I just wasn’t able to fully accept beef stew without potatoes, so that was one of the tweaks I made.
So before we jump into the recipe for my instant pot beef stew. Let’s take a quick second to talk about where your ingredients are coming (or should) come from. I try to grow as much of my own fruits and veggies as possible. For tonight’s stew, I was able to harvest my own celery, onions, potatoes and rainbow carrots. Until the day when I have my fully functional homestead. I rely on TruLocal to get my locally sourced beef. The stewing beef that I’m using tonight came from The Heritage Cattle Company. I love the fact that this beef came from only about an hour away from my home.
I was also lucky to have some of my spring harvest of carrots in my freezer. Once they were harvested in the summer, I chopped and blanched them before freezing. This was great as I was able to just pop them into the Instant Pot. I currently have my second batch of carrots in the ground as part of my fall garden. If you want to know more about planting a fall garden you can check out my YouTube video on that very subject.
I also had some beautiful potatoes that I harvested, they weren’t big but they were tasty. This year I grew three types of potatoes this year: Yukon gold, French fingerling and some russet potatoes.
I grabbed some of my onions from the basement and a quick trip out to the garden also netted me some celery. There is something powerful about harvesting food right before you cook it. I mean you don’t get much fresher than that.
Once everything is all chopped up you can move onto the next step. Just add all the ingredients (except the water and corn starch) to the Instant Pot (this is the one I have).
Select the Meat/Stew option which should set the timer for 35 minutes and high temperature. Don’t forget to make sure that the vent is set to “sealing” or it could take a lot longer than you intend.
When the time is up, let it vent naturally if possible. If you are pressed for time then try to let it vent naturally for at least 10 minutes. Remove any random pots and pans from the oven and preheat it to 400F. When the Instant Pot is done venting, mix up the slurry of water and corn starch and put it and the contents of the Instant Pot into an oven-safe dish. Pop it into the oven for 20 minutes to let the sauce thicken and the beef brown. Then it’s into your favourite bowl (mine is from Pavlo Pottery) and pair it with some crusty bread and maybe some red wine.
Enjoy this hearty instant pot beef stew!
Hearty Instant Pot Beef Stew
Equipment
- Instant Pot
- Baking dish
Ingredients
- 1 lb Stewing beef (preferably locally sourced and grass-fed)
- 1 large Onion
- 2 stalks Celery
- ½ lb Potatoes
- 3 cups Carrots (chopped)
- 1 cup Tomato Juice
- 1 tbsp Sugar
- 2 tbsp Corn starch
- ¼ cup Water
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients in the Instant Pot (except the water and corn starch), give them a stir and set it to the "Meat/Stew" setting (35 min at high pressure).
- Remove any random pots and pans from the oven and preheat it to 400F.
- Once the time is up, let the stew vent naturally (if possible). If you are short on time then try to leave it for at least 10 minutes before you manually vent it.
- Transfer the stew to a baking dish.
- Mix the water and corn starch into a slurry and add it to the baking dish, giving it a quick stir.
- Put the baking dish into the oven for 15 minutes then serve immediately, preferably with a side of crusty bread.
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