Yesterday for dinner I decided to try and recreate a dish I remember quite fondly from my childhood – Beef Stroganoff. And I wanted to recreate the beef stroganoff in our Instant Pot.
https://youtu.be/oTHYl0-pBeo
I had an understanding of the basics of what goes into a Beef Stroganoff so I did my best to replicate what I remember the dish being like.
The basic ingredients:
- 1.5 lbs lean ground beef
- 3-4 small onions cut into thin slices
- 1 package of broad egg noodles
- 1 can of cream of mushroom soup
- 1 tbsp of flour
- 1 tsp of salt
- 1/2 tsp of pepper
- 1/2 tsp of garlic powder
- 3-4 cups of beef broth
- 1 cup sour cream
I started by cutting the onions into thin slices and then sliding them into the Instant Pot – which I had just given a spray of Pam. I let the onions sauté until they were translucent – that sort of clear look. And then I added in the ground beef and let it sauté until the beef was browned.
Once the beef was done I poured in the beef stock/broth and stirred to mix it all together. You want to try to deglaze the bottom of the instant pot so that all the meat and onions that are browned on to the bottom of the pot come off and get added into the flavour of the mix.
Then I added in the garlic powder, salt and pepper and stirred that all together to mix it. I flopped in the can of cream of mushroom soup and stirred it some more. And then I added a heaping tablespoon of flour to help the mixture thicken as it cooked.
Next the bag of egg noodles was poured in. And yes, I stirred to mix. Ready for pressurizing.
Put the lid on the Instant Pot and switch off the sauté feature. Set the lid to seal and manually set the pressure to high (the default position) and the timer to 9 minutes.
The pressure will now build. Watch that the little silver pressure valve to see it pops up. Shortly after it is sealed and up to temperature, the timer will begin to count down.
After the timer has finished, I let it de-pressurize naturally for about 5-6 minutes. After naturally venting, I did a quick release by carefully spinning the release valve.
Once the instant pot was de-pressurized I opened the top, gave it a stir and then spooned in about a cup of sour cream. Of course you know what I did next – stir to mix.
When serving the Beef Stroganoff it does look like pretty drab and brown. I had a big bag of baby spinach greens and fresh tomatoes available so to add some colour to the meal I sliced up the spinach and tomatoes and added it to the top of the dish. A little dollop of sour cream, and dinner was served.
Almost unbelievably, both my kids liked it. Me? It was just okay. I would make it again but I’d probably try it with stewing beef instead of ground beef.
My favourite part of the meal? Barely anything to clean up after cooking!