Best Vegan Stew Recipes In The Instant Pot (2024)

FAQs

Is an Instant Pot good for vegan cooking? ›

From plumping up dried beans to baking a cake, Instant Pots can handle a whole range of tasks that will drastically simplify your weekly meal prep. We've rounded up our favorite vegan Instant Pot recipes that are 100% oil-free and totally delicious so you'll have plenty of fresh ideas for dinnertime.

Why is My Stew Meat Tough In Instant Pot? The cut of meat you select for stew plays a big role in its tenderness once cooked. Beef chuck roast, I find, is the best cut of meat for beef stew recipes. Be sure to also let your pressure release naturally.

Instant Pot Instructions: Place everything in the Instant Pot. Select the stew/meat setting (about 35 minutes, high pressure). After it's done, let everything mellow out for about 10 minutes before releasing the steam. Technically at this point, it's done.

It's full of veggies and protein after all. Although traditional beef stew recipes provide more nutrition than many meals, most still plague you with far too much sodium and calories. Make some easy switches to truly have a healthy beef stew recipe you can be proud to share. Most stews use a beef broth for the base.

Pressure cookers are amazingly useful kitchen appliances that can dramatically expand your vegan cooking possibilities. They let you cook any number of meals that would otherwise be prohibitively time-consuming. If you cook beans often, or live in a place with long winters, you should strongly consider purchasing one.

Yes, the Instant Pot is widely considered an effective and versatile pressure cooker. Many users find it worth the price due to its convenience, time-saving features, and ability to perform various cooking functions in one appliance.

Unfortunately, once you overcook a piece of meat in the pressure cooker, there's no going back. You'll be left with a pile of dry, crunchy, tasteless fibers and no amount of additional pressure cooking is going to put that moisture back into the meat.

Go for the chuck

The most common beef used for stew is chuck steak, also known as gravy beef or braising steak. Beef chuck comes from the forequarter of the animal consisting of parts of the neck, shoulder blade and upper arm. It is easy to find and it's affordable, making it a great choice for your stew.

While you may cover meat almost completely for a conventional braise, use just enough liquid for the cooker to reach pressure – during pressure cooking the meat will release it's own juice and braise in that flavorful liquid, instead.

Most recipes for beef stew start with cutting meat into cubes, then browning the cubes in a big pot. The idea is that browning builds flavor through the Maillard reaction, which will then get spread around through the whole pot as the meat and vegetables slowly braise in liquid.

Should I use natural or quick release for stew? ›

When and how to use a natural release. Because there is so much pressure built up inside the pot, releasing it gradually is gentler than a quick release, but it also adds time. This makes it ideal for foods with longer cook times, like braises, stews, and broths.

Whisk a teaspoon of flour in a little cold water to make a slurry, then stir into the stew as it's cooking. Don't add dry flour directly to the stew as it may clump. After adding the slurry, bring the stew to boil. This will cook out the flour taste and allow the starch to swell.

It is possible to eat stew as part of a healthy diet, but it is not recommended to rely solely on stew as the sole source of nutrition. Stew can be a nutritious and satisfying meal that can provide a variety of nutrients depending on the ingredients used.

Beef gets an underserved bad rap when it comes to health, especially heart health. However, research shows that a heart-healthy diet and lifestyle that includes lean beef (like in this hearty beef and vegetable stew!) can reduce risk factors for heart disease, including elevated cholesterol and blood pressure.

Eating soup and salad every day can be part of a healthy eating plan, but it's important to ensure that your diet is well-rounded and provides all the necessary nutrients. Soups and salads can be nutritious options, as they often contain vegetables, lean proteins, and other healthy ingredients.

The most important key to making stew meat tender is being sure to cook it for a long time. If you want super tender beef, you'll need to cook it on a low heat in a Dutch oven on the stove or a slow cooker for at least a few hours.

Cook it slow and steady.

This gives collagens in the tough muscle tissue time to melt and make the meat tender. Try tasting a bite after an hour, two hours, and three hours — you'll see how the meat goes from chewy to pretty good to fall-apart tender.

Simmer in liquid. Just like for burnt meat, if your meat gets tough and dry then you can simmer it in a little bit of broth for a couple minutes. Don't allow it to overcook again but just allow the liquid to penetrate the meat.

The most important thing about keeping meat soft and tender in a stew is to never let it actually boil, you cook it very low and slow.