Instant Pot Vegetable Beef Soup
Instant Pot Vegetable Beef Soup is loaded with fork-tender beef, flavorful rich broth, and a medley of nutritious vegetables like onions, carrots, peas, and so much more. This is a comforting and hearty soup that can be made in such a short time, thanks to the Instant Pot!
Love to you your Instant Pot for soup recipes? Try my Instant Pot Ham and Bean Soup and Instant Pot Split Pea soup.
Table of Contents
If you’re in dire need of warm comfort food like I am, regardless of your geographical region’s current temperature, then you’ve stumbled upon the perfect soup recipe. It’s healthy AND comforting soup? It’s really the best of both worlds!
I love using my Instant Pot for an array of different recipes, but soups and stews are what I think the machine is best at preparing. Usually, a hearty beef soup takes a few hours to slowly cook on the stove top, but the Instant Pot reduces that cook time to just about an hour.
The best part is that while you may be cutting a corner when it comes to cook time, you’re not sacrificing any flavor or tenderness in the soup, and that’s huge. As a matter of fact, the flavors that develop are so rich and bright.
During the wintertime, it’s easy to fall into a pattern of hearty, filling comfort recipes. With that being said, it’s just as easy to not get as many vegetables in your diet as you may need. That’s where this easy recipe comes in handy – it’s not just rich with protein and delicious flavors, but it’s also loaded with veggies.
Ingredient Notes
Olive Oil – use a neutral oil that has a high burn point like vegetable, some olive oil, or avocado oil will also work.
Stew Beef – Also known as chuck or stew meat is what you’ll need to use in this beef soup recipe. It’s a tough cut of meat and perfect for cooking slowly in stews and soups.
Onion – A yellow onion will work well, but you can use white or Vidalia onion as well.
Celery – Make sure to rinse your celery, as there’s often dirt on the stalks, especially if you get organic.
Garlic – Use fresh, not pre-minced jar or premade garlic paste, for the best flavor.
Baby Gold Potatoes – These will cook to the most amazingly tender, soft consistency! You can also use large gold potatoes and chop them.
Frozen Peas – use frozen peas while still frozen, or they may go soggy as they cook.
Beef Stock – For the best flavor, use Homemade Beef Stock if you have some.
Fire Roasted Tomatoes – While you can use a regular can of tomatoes, fire roasted tomatoes give it an extra touch of flavor.
Tomato Paste – make sure to use tomato paste not tomato sauce. Tomato paste is much more concentrated with stronger, rich flavor.
Seasoning – You’ll need bay leaves, dried thyme, parsley, salt, and pepper.
Cornstarch – this is an optional ingredient, to thicken the soup if you wish.
How To Make Vegetable Beef Soup
Prep: Before cooking, prepare your meat by cutting it into smaller pieces if needed. Prepare all of your veggies as well and measure remaining ingredients.
Sear the meat: Set your Instant Pot to “sear.” Add oil, then sear the meat chunks and season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Once seared, remove the meat from the pot.
Cook the veggies: Add the onions, celery, and carrots, searing them all until browned. Then, toss in the garlic until fragrant. Pour in the beef stock and tomato paste.
Remaining ingredients: Add the can of diced tomatoes, potatoes, stock, water, and seasonings. Make sure you don’t add the peas just yet!
Cook: Close the lid and turn the valve to “seal.” Set the Instant Pot to the “stew” setting for 20 minutes.
Note that the Instant Pot will take about 15 minutes to build the pressure and start cooking before the cook time begins.
Natural and quick release: Once the time is up, let the pressure cooker do a natural release for about 10 minutes before carefully doing a quick release.
If you want to thicken the beef vegetable soup: To slightly thicken the soup, mix cornstarch and cold beef stock. Turn on the “sear” setting on the Instant Pot.
Peas: Add the frozen peas, then pour in the cornstarch mixture. Let the soup simmer for approximately 5-6 minutes, stirring often. Turn off the Instant Pot, discard the bay leaves, and enjoy!
Recipe FAQs
Add as many of your favorite vegetables as you’d like, or just some extras of your favorite few. Some good veggies to add include green beans, mushrooms, corn, and root vegetables like winter squashes and pumpkin.
There’s really not a that big of a difference between the two, but that are indeed different. Beef soup has more vegetables then beef stew and more brothy. Beef stew is much thicker in consistency and if generally cooked longer.
Of course you can! It will take longer because you have to cook the soup until the beef is completely tender, but you can definitely cook this beef soup on your stove top.
Storing and Freezing Instructions
Storing: Store leftover beef and vegetable soup in an airtight food storage container, in the refrigerator. Make sure to keep it air-tight and when stored properly, this soup should be good for 4-5 days. When getting some soup out to reheat, make sure to use a clean ladle each time.
Reheating: this is a simple soup to reheat, you can do it in a microwave of in a small sauce pot over medium heat. Make sure to reheat just until warmed through.
Freezing: If you plan to freeze your vegetable beef soup, make sure to cool this soup to first and do so quickly. To cool cooked soup quickly, place the pot with soup into a larger container filled with ice and let it cool, stirring occasionally.
Once soup is cooled to room temperature, portion it into freezer zip-lock bags. Get the air out and seal. Label and date each bag and lay them flat on a cutting board. Place it in the freezer. (You can also use plastic freezer storage containers.)
PRO TIP: It’s easier to freeze soup in freezer bags to save room. When frozen flat, it can be stacked easily side by side or one of top of another.
To thaw the soup, pull it out of the freezer and into the refrigerator. Make sure to slow-thaw overnight in the refrigerator.
PRO TIP: remember that potatoes will have a different texture when they’ve been frozen and thawed!
More Winter Recipes To Try
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Instant Pot Vegetable Beef Soup Recipe
Equipment
- Knife and catting board
- Wooden spatula
- Measuring cups and spoons
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1.5 lb stew beef
- 1 yellow onion
- 3 medium carrots
- 3-4 celery ribs
- 4-6 garlic cloves
- 24 oz baby gold potatoes
- 8-10 oz frozen peas
- 3 cups beef stock
- 1 cup water
- 14.5 oz can fire roasted tomatoes
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tbsp dried parsley
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- salt
- black pepper
To Thicken:
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp cold beef stock
Instructions
Before Cooking:
- Cut stew meat into smaller pieces if they are large. About 1/2 inch should be good.
- Dice onion, carrots, and celery. Smash and mince garlic. Cut potatoes and half. Measure remaining ingredients.
Sear Beef and Vegetables:
- Set your Instant Pot to a “sear” setting and let it heat up. Add some oil and throw in meat chunks. Season the beef with some salt and pepper. Let the meat sear for a few minutes before you start to mix it. Stir and sear on other sides and take them out of the pot. (Depending on the size of the pot, you may need to sear meat in batches.)
- Add diced onions, celery, and carrots (and a little more oil if needed). Sear the vegetables until start to get browned.
- Add garlic and sauté until it's fragrant.
- Add the beef back and mix in tomato paste. Let it sear for a few seconds.
- Add the can of diced tomatoes, potatoes, stock, water, and seasoning. As you are adding the liquids, make sure to scrape the bottom of the pot to lift off any cooked on pieces of food. This will ensure that you don't get the "burn" notice.(Do not add the peas yet!)
- Close the lid and make sure it is latched all the way. Turn the valve to “seal” and set the pressure cooker to cook on “stew” setting for 20 minutes. (If you don’t have a “stew” setting, set it to pressure cook on high pressure for 20 minutes. Consult your pressure cooker manual for exact proper operations.)NOTE: Pressure cooker will take about 15 minutes to build the pressure inside first, before it starts cooking.
- Once time is up, let is do a natural release for about 10 minutes and the carefully do a quick release.
To Thicken The Soup Slightly:
- In a small bowl, combine cornstarch and cold beef stock and mix it together.
- Turn on the sear setting.
- Add the peas and pour in the cornstarch mixture and slowly stir. Let the soup simmer while slowly simmer for about 5-6 minutes.
- Turn off pressure cooker and discard bay leaves.
If you don't want to thicken the soup:
- After cook time is up, open the lid and turn on the sear setting.
- Add peas, stir them in, and let them cook for about 5 minutes.
Video
Notes
- Want to add more vegetables? Add as many of your favorite vegetables as you’d like, or just some extras of your favorite few. Some good veggies to add include green beans, mushrooms, corn, and root vegetables like winter squashes and pumpkin.
- Storing: Store leftover beef and vegetable soup in an airtight food storage container, in the refrigerator. Make sure to keep it air-tight and when stored properly, this soup should be good for 4-5 days. When getting some soup out to reheat, make sure to use a clean ladle each time.
Nutrition
Originally published on Will Cook For Smiles in January 2022.
Categories:
Beef Recipes, Gluten Free Recipes, Instant Pot Recipes, Instant Pot Soups, Most Popular Recipes, Soup Recipes,All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.
Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.
Easy, quick, and very good with a nice deep rich flavor. We added corn to it also.
Thank you, Kerry! I am so glad you like the recipe!
This is a really good recipe. Everything came out wonderfully. Thank you.
I’m not a newbie to cooking, but I am with the Instant Pot that I got for Christmas. Mine also has a Crisper/Air Fryer. I’m like a kid in a candy store even though I’m a retired executive chef from NYC/Long Island, NY, now living in SC. I’d like to make a suggestion, if I may. Don’t buy the already prepped “stew beef” at your local grocery store. 99.9% Of the time, that stuff is scrap cuts from regular butchering, that would ordinarily go into the scrap barrel. It always contains a lot of “silver skin,” which is a very tough and fibrous connective tissue/sinew, that is extremely difficult to chew and indigestible for some. The best cuts of stew meat are lean with a high concentration of collagen-rich connective tissues, such as chuck or shoulder cuts, that also have some fat marbling for flavor. Lean cuts of meat come from parts of the animal that have lots of muscle, like the legs and the shoulders. During the long cook time used to make stews, proteins in the connective tissues break down into gelatin that keeps the meat moist and tender. Once again, thanks for this wonderful recipe. God bless.
Thanks, Christopher! That is a great tip that I will use in the future! 🙂
I made these last night and they were amazing!
Good! I am so pleased you liked the recipe!