Instant Pot

Martha Stewart's Instant Pot Beef Stew With Dijon & Tomato

by:
October 13, 2018
4
47 Ratings
Martha Stewart's Instant Pot Beef Stew With Dijon & Tomato
Photo by Marcus Nilsson
  • Cook time 1 hour 15 minutes
  • Serves 6
Author Notes

Recipe reprinted from Martha Stewart's Pressure Cooker: 100+ Fabulous New Recipes for the Pressure Cooker, Multicooker, and Instant Pot®. Copyright © 2018 by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Photograph copyright © 2018 by Marcus Nilsson. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

A bowl of beef stew can take the chill off even the most wintery day. This one employs tangy Dijon mustard to unite all the other ingredients—beef chuck, onions, mushrooms, carrots, and tomatoes. You can make it a meal by serving it with mashed potatoes or crusty bread, some greens, and a bottle of red wine such as Cabernet or Zinfandel. —Food52

Test Kitchen Notes

Featured in: 10 Quick & Easy Dinners the Whole Family Will Love. —The Editors

What You'll Need
Watch This Recipe
Martha Stewart's Instant Pot Beef Stew With Dijon & Tomato
Ingredients
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 3 pounds boneless beef chuck, cut into 1½-inch cubes
  • Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 2 or 4 cups water
  • 1 pound white mushrooms, trimmed and halved or quartered if large
  • 2 medium onions, finely chopped
  • 1 medium carrot, finely chopped
  • 1 celery stalk, finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
  • 1 can (28 ounces) whole tomatoes
  • 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
Directions
  1. Heat oil in 6- to 8-quart stovetop pressure cooker over medium-high, or in an electric pressure cooker set to sauté. Pat beef dry and season with 1½ teaspoons salt and ¾ teaspoon pepper. Working in batches, cook beef until browned on all sides, 6 to 8 minutes; transfer to a plate.
  2. Add 1 cup water to pressure cooker, scraping up brown bits with a wooden spoon. Add 3 cups more water for stovetop, and 1 cup more water for electric. Add mushrooms, onions, carrot, celery, garlic, tomatoes (with their juices), mustard, and ½ teaspoon salt. Return beef to pressure cooker along with any accumulated juices.
  3. Stovetop: Secure lid. Bring to high pressure over medium-high heat; reduce heat to maintain pressure and cook for 60 minutes. Remove from heat, quickly release pressure, then remove lid.

    Electric: Secure lid. Manually set cooker to 60 minutes and let it come to pressure. Once time is complete, turn off, quickly release pressure, then remove lid.
  4. Skim any fat from surface. Top stew with basil, if using, and serve.
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17 Reviews

SilverStreak
SilverStreak January 8, 2024
Very confusing instructions! Criss-crossed stovetop vs. Instant Pot within the same steps… I thought this was supposed to be an Instant Pot recipe (as it says in the title). Perhaps this is why some people got soup-like results; using 3 or 4 cups of liquid in the Instant Pot instead of the total 2 cups? I’m going to give it a try, but it seems very poorly written.
 
MarkMac
MarkMac May 15, 2023
Delicious! The meat turns out very tender. The recipe as written is for the larger sized Instant Pot, btw. My modifications: browned the meat in iron skillet in two batches, keeping the pieces separated. Deglazed the skillet with 1 cup red wine, allowing for some reduction / evaporation of the wine. Added 1 cup of chicken broth instead of water as I did not have beef broth (I would not use water in this recipe, rather broth, wine, bouillon, etc.). The Instant Pot recipe calls for two cups of liquid and the 28 oz can of tomatoes-- next time, I might use just the cup of wine, and a half cup of beef broth, in addition to the can and juice of the tomatoes. It turned out very well.
 
Michael M.
Michael M. February 19, 2023
Hi everyone! We made this recipe in our instant pot and it was delicious. We used beef stock in place of the 3 cups of water and we used red wine in place of the extra cup of water. Other than that, made exactly as written and it was perfect.
 
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Cynthia G.
Cynthia G. October 30, 2020
This is really just a beef soup. The flavors are totally dilutedNothing like the picture. If I were to nake this again I aould deglaze with 1)2 cup of water and use diced or crushed tomatoes. Really a disappointment.
 
Adrianne
Adrianne April 7, 2019
This is delicious! I did not use the instant release, rather just went natural. Meat was very tender. Stew was very brothy, more like soup. Served it over a dollop of mashed potatoes. Homemade bread on the side. Will make this again.
 
mickeyc
mickeyc February 12, 2019
I bought an Instant Pot last year and it stated in the manual to NEVER use the Instant Release when done cooking MEAT, or the meat would be tough. It said to Natural Release until the little metal thing (float valve) drops down. That takes 10 to 40 minutes. My slow cooker on the Instant Pot never worked right, it wouldn't get hot, so I returned it and bought a new Instant Pot and the book is different now, and no where does it say to NOT use the instant release, like in the old manual. There is a recipe for pot roast and it says when it done to use the instant release, so I don't know why it changed. I will continue to do the natural release anyway on meats. In the new recipe book, it says to do what the recipe states, so there must be cases where one would use the Natural Release. Maybe they found out that some meats, like chicken, would get overly tender? Just guessing.
 
Jennie
Jennie April 7, 2019
I have used instant release and natural release for pot roast, and found instant release makes the surface of the meat stringy and tough. Maybe there is enough moisture covering the meat in the recipe to avoid that.
 
Mindthegap
Mindthegap December 9, 2018
A lot less heavy than I’d thought it would be and yes, a bit soupy as earlier reviewer mentioned (maybe reduce additional water if you like it a little thicker). Tomatoes did not burn in Instant Pot: the key is to layer mushrooms, onions, carrots, celery and then tomatoes on top of that, which keeps them off the bottom of the pot and prevents the dreaded “burn” notice. Tender meat. Mixed in a little horseradish to zip up the flavor.
 
Barb M.
Barb M. December 9, 2018
Everything that I have read about cooking meat the InstantPot says to never do a "quick release" on it. That it makes the meat tough. Has anyone tried this recipe?
 
Sherri D.
Sherri D. December 9, 2018
Just released pressure and gave it a taste. Meat is very tender. This is more of a soup than stew in my opinion. Will be serving over rice or potatoes for dinner tonight. Husband likes it.
 
Mathew H.
Mathew H. December 9, 2018
I tried it tonight. Beef came out as tender as I had hoped for. Overall good recipe. Not life-changing, but good beef stew in an afternoon. Not sure about the meat/quick release rules.
 
Fred H.
Fred H. December 19, 2018
I've used the Instant Pot dozens of times, almost always with "quick release" recipes, and I've never had it produce tough meat. Where is this "everything" you've read?
 
Barb M.
Barb M. December 19, 2018
Whoops. Have you not had your medication today?
 
Fred H.
Fred H. December 19, 2018
Setting aside the implicit shaming of folks with mental difficulties — no; I was just wondering where you'd seen the lore about quick release making the meat tough. You said "everything that I have read" says that — but *nothing* that I've read has. So: what were your sources?
 
Sf2oak
Sf2oak January 14, 2019
Here's where I've seen the lore of NPR (among many other places.)
https://www.hippressurecooking.com/meat-openings-pcs/
So it's interesting to know that you don't find QR toughens meat.
"...Slow Release – A piece of meat that is pressure cooked, but opened with a slow pressure release, like my recommended Natural Pressure Release, will evaporate slightly more moisture than the one that was conventionally cooked – but, not a lot.

Fast Release – And, finally, let’s see what happens to a pressure cooker roast which was pulled out of the pressure cooker as fast as possible using quickest pressure release, such as Normal pressure release. The meat is really, really hot and a majority of the moisture begins evaporating away super quickly.

And that’s why for most recipes I recommend using the Natural pressure release. It gives the meat’s juices enough time to lower their temperature slowing the evaporation..."
 
Jennie
Jennie April 7, 2019
I have used instant release and natural release for pot roast, and found instant release makes the surface of the meat stringy and tough. Maybe there is enough moisture covering the meat in the recipe to avoid that.