Meat and vegetable stews are one of the best ways to enjoy a homemade, tasty and wonderfully complete meal. They are also a great option if you eat at work and need to take your lunch with you. Making beef and vegetable stew in a pressure cooker has an added advantage: it is ready in considerably less time than when cooked in a traditional pot, the meat becomes beautifully tender and you get a sauce packed with flavour – perfect for mopping up with bread!
This traditional stew is one of the recipes best suited to a pressure cooker, as pressure cooking helps tenderise the meat while concentrating the aromas and flavours of all the ingredients. In much less time, using a cooker such as the Fissler Vitaquick® Elemental, you can achieve meltingly tender beef and a delicious sauce without having to spend hours cooking the stew.
Here is the recipe for beef and vegetable stew in a pressure cooker. You can serve it with sautéed mushrooms, quinoa or cooked rice, or with a generous portion of homemade chips. And don't forget the bread, because this sauce is absolutely delicious!
Ingredients
- 800 g stewing beef, diced (chuck or shin)
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 2 large carrots, sliced
- 1–2 handfuls of peas
- 150 g grated tomato
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 250 ml beef stock or water (approximately)
- 1 bay leaf
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Method
- Heat your Fissler Vitaquick® pressure cooker with a little olive oil and season the beef with salt and pepper.
- Brown the beef cubes on all sides and set aside.
- Add the remaining olive oil to the cooker, followed by the onion. Stir well so that it combines with the meat juices, then cook over a medium-low heat until softened gently, without allowing it to burn.
- Once the onion has softened, add the grated tomato and stir. Turn the heat up slightly and cook until the excess liquid has evaporated and the tomato has reduced to a concentrated mixture. Stir occasionally.
- Return the beef to the cooker along with the carrots and bay leaf. Gradually add the stock until the meat is covered.
- Close the cooker, turn up the heat and, once the valve rises, cook for 30 minutes, reducing the heat as necessary to maintain the pressure.
- Once the cooking time is up, turn off the heat and allow the cooker to release all its pressure.
- Open the cooker, add the peas and cook over a low heat for a further 5–10 minutes (until the peas are cooked).
- Leave to rest for a few minutes and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper if necessary.
- Serve hot or save it for the following day – it will taste even better!
