Better For You Instant Pot Spicy White Bean Beef Stew.

I have the best, quick, easy, and cozy Wednesday dinner, Better For You Instant Pot Spicy White Bean Beef Stew.

Apparently this week is all about midwest..ish style comfort foods. With Monday’s Spaghetti Pie and today’s Beef Stew, I’m going back to my Ohio roots. Not sure what’s gotten into me, but I got this idea for a spicy white bean beef stew and really loved the sound of it. Normally, beef stew is not something I really have a strong desire to make. Anything beef and stew just doesn’t usually come to mind, but again, something came over me and this just sounded really good.

So I took the idea and went with it, which is something I’m trying to do more of, instead of sitting on it for days and then deciding it’s actually a bad idea. The way my brain works, it’s great and so awful at the same time.

Anyway, I went for it and since I’m on a quick and easy kick, I decided to try this out in the Instant Pot. I was nervous. I’ve had a few successes with the instant pot, see this chicken ramen (love, love, love this recipe so much) and these turkey meatballs (with spaghetti squash so it’s healthified!). But for my two successes, I’ve had countless fails. To say that figuring out the Instant Pot has been tricky would be an understatement. I gave up for a while, but I’m pretty happy I decided to give it another try because this easy beef stew is game changing.

Here’s how this goes. Add everything to the instant pot, set it to the meat and stew setting for thirty-five minutes. Transfer the stew to a baking dish, broil for a few minutes to caramelize the meat and veggies. EAT. With plenty of toasted bread and maybe some parmesan too. If you’re into that, which I am.

Okay. I realize that a lot of you are like, wait, why do we have to dirty another dish and broil this?

Here is why. The meat needs some caramelization on it to add flavor. Normally, I would brown the meat before cooking the stew, but I don’t love browning meat in the Instant Pot. It’s a little small and it’s hard to control the heat. Trust me, this broiling method makes life easy and makes for a delicious, non-chewy stew. Plus, it’s only one additional step, making this entire dinner a two-step process.

Guys you got that. You can do it.

Also, finishing the stew in a baking dish or a pretty cast iron dutch oven makes for a much prettier presentation. So, if you wanted to serve this as a holiday meal, no one would ever have to know that it did not actually slow cook all-day.

Seeing as this last week was heavy on the comfort foods, and just food in general (hello to all those Thanksgiving appetizers and pies), I though it might be nice if I also lightened this recipe up a bit. Meaning, I added a ton of carrots (mainly because carrots cooked in red wine are maybe one of my favorite things ever), lots of protein and fiber rich white beans, and a few large handfuls of greens. For the greens, I used spinach because it’s what I had on hand, but I’d use a hearty winter green like a chard or kale. These will hold up better in the stew. That said, the spinach was still delicious.

I also added some chili peppers to give the stew a little unexpected heat. The spice in the chili peppers is said to really rev up our metabolisms, making this the perfect post Thanksgiving week dinner.

Who says comfort food can’t be healthy too!

Guess it’s a cozy stew kind of Wednesday night.