Instant Pot Lamb Stew
Instant Pot Lamb Stew is the finest comforting meal made with tender lamb pieces and veggies in the most amazing broth. This is one of the easiest and most delicious pressure cooker recipes that the whole family will love. The perfect dish to serve for St. Patrick’s Day or Easter!
If you are looking for more instant pot dishes that can help you stay warm, check out these recipes for Instant Pot Cabbage Stew with Ground Beef, Slow Cooker Cabbage Roll Soup, and Instant Pot Pork Stew. These are recipes that the whole family will love and are perfect to make on a weeknight or to serve for a special occasion.
Pressure cooker lamb stew is not only delicious, but it also holds significant cultural importance among the Irish. This Irish stew is traditionally made with mutton as well, but never beef.
Lamb meat is more widely consumed in Mediterranean cuisine. It has more calories than beef and could even be fatter. But all you need to do is trim off the fat and you will get meat that is leaner than beef.
This easy recipe is the best comfort food! It is hearty, tender and full of flavor! The best part is that you can make it in the electric pressure cooker in a facrtion of the time.
The traditional version only has root vegetables and water in addition to the meat. But it has come to evolve into a richer and heartier version over the centuries.
In this recipe, you will see a lot of vegetables among the ingredients which all contribute a nice balance to all that meaty goodness. We also use red wine and herbs to add even more flavor to the meal!
Ingredients needed:
- Oil: To saute some of the ingredients you will need vegetable oil. However, canola oil, olive oil, or avocado oil work as well.
- Meat: We use a combination of lamb stew meat, like boneless leg of lamb or lamb shoulder, and also bacon for some smoky flavor. However, you can skip the bacon if you want.
- Seasoning: Salt, ground black pepper.
- Veggies and legumes: Onion, garlic, mushrooms red potatoes, carrots, celery ribs, and sweet peas.
- Liquid: To make the stew very flavorful we cook everything in a mixture of red wine and beef broth. However, you can use vegetable broth, beef stock, or chicken broth as well, and skip the alcohol.
- Herbs: Rosemary and bay leaves.
- Others: You will also need some all-purpose flour and Worcestershire sauce.
How do you make Instant Pot lamb stew?
- Saute setting: First, start with the sauté function, and add the oil to the bottom of the pot. Cook the bacon first, set it aside after, and discard the grease, leaving only a few tablespoons on the bottom of the pot.
- Brown the meat: Then, season the pieces of meat, toss them in flour, and cook it until brown, set aside.
- Deglaze: After that, use some red wine and a wooden spoon to deglaze the pot and scrape the browned bits from the bottom of the pot.
- Add: Then, still using the sauté setting, cook the onion and garlic and after that add the remaining ingredients, including the browned lamb meat and the bacon.
- Pressure cook: Close and lock the lid and point the valve to sealed. Pressure cook on high pressure for 30 minutes.
- Natural pressure release: Once pressure cooking time has been completed, for a 10-minute natural release.
- Quick pressure release: After that, open the valve, called a Quick Release, to release any remaining pressure.
- Serve: Then, discard the bay leaf, garnish with fresh parsley and serve warm.
Recipe Variation
- Irish lamb stew: Use the Guinness stout beer instead of red wine. You can follow this IP Guinness Beef Stew recipe and just substitute the meat with lamb.
- Veggies: Since this easy recipe is also very versatile, you can use any vegetables that you have on hand. We recommend trying it with sweet potatoes, baby potatoes, chunks of red bell peppers, chopped cabbage.
- Warm spices: In addition, you can add some subtle extra flavor by using some spices, like a cinnamon stick that you can discard after cooking. Also, some cloves, or Chinese 5 spice blend.
- Ground meat: As an alternative, make this recipe with ground lamb, it will have the texture more of a chili. Another option is to use leftover lamb roast meat.
- Spicy: Add some hot sauce, red pepper flakes, or chili powder with the rest of the ingredients.
- Gluten-free: Also, this can be easily done gluten-free if you use gluten-free flour.
- Stove top version: If you choose not to do this in the electric pressure cooker, follow this recipe the stovetop lamb stew version.
- Slow cooker version: Another version is to make it in the crockpot, follow this slow cooker lamb stew version.
What is the best meat cut for stew?
Any cut will do but the best and popular choice is the shoulder cut. It may be tough because it gets exercised more than other parts, but it does not matter in stewing because of the lengthy cooking time.
So, even if you choose the tougher parts, your dish will still have tender meat in it. Tough cuts tend to be cheaper, too.
But of course, if you are pressed with time, then, you are in the right place! This Instant Pot recipe is the solution to shorten the cooking time.
How to serve:
- It is best served over mashed potatoes or with some beer bread.
- In addition, you can serve it with white rice, brown rice, or quinoa.
- Also, it is equally delicious with some couscous on the side.
- Another option is to serve it with your favorite toppings, we recommend some fresh parsley or fresh cilantro, sour cream, and some freshly shredded cheese.
- This is the perfect recipe for st. patrick’s day, hence, serving it with some boiled cabbage or sauteed cabbage would be a great choice.
How to store leftovers:
- Refrigerate: This dish tastes even better the next day. To refrigerate, first, let the leftovers fully cool. After that, transfer the leftover pressure cooker lamb stew to an airtight container and store it in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- Freeze: If you want to have a stash of this meal in the freezer, transfer it to freezer bags and freeze it for up to 3 months.
- Thaw: Simply, transfer the frozen meal to the fridge and let it thaw overnight.
- Reheat: Finally, to serve reheat it, either in the microwave or on the stove. Also, taste and adjust for seasoning.
More Irish recipes:
Cooking tips:
- There is no need to thaw the frozen peas when cooking, just add them like this.
- If you can, choose a local supplier for the meat over importing so that you are sure that you get the freshest cuts.
- The main consideration in choosing red wine is that it must be something that you will drink yourself. Hence, use either a cooking wine or a dry red wine that you like.
- In addition, if you choose to skip the wine, you can add 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar and one tablespoon of tomato paste to make up for the acidity.
Instant Pot Lamb Stew
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 6 slices thick-cut bacon chopped
- 2 lbs stew lamb meat leg of lamb or lamb shoulder meat - cut into 1 1/2" pieces
- 1 teaspoon sea salt or to taste
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups red wine or broth
- 1 medium yellow onion diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 lb baby Bella mushrooms sliced
- 4 cups beef broth low sodium
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary finely chopped
- 1 1/2 lbs red potatoes halved or quartered
- 2 medium carrots peeled and cut into 1/2" thick pieces
- 2 celery ribs thickly chopped
- 1 cup frozen sweet peas
Garnish:
- 1/4 cup parsley finely chopped
Instructions
Brown:
- Click on Saute and adjust it to High. Once the Instant Pot displays HOT add the oil wait for it to start shimmering.
- Add the bacon piece and cook it until browned, remove it to a plate, and set aside.
- In a large bowl toss lamb meat with salt, pepper, and all-purpose flour. Add it to the IP and cook it until browned, if needed do this in batches.
- Remove to a plate and set aside.
Deglaze:
- Add 1/2 cup of red wine and using a wooden spoon scrape the bits that stuck to the bottom of the pot.
Saute the veggies:
- Add the onion and saute for 1 minute. Add the garlic and saute for 30 seconds, stirring occasionally.
Pressure Cook:
- Add in the rest of the ingredients including the remaining wine, also add back to the pot the lamb and the bacon pieces.
- Lock the lid, seal the valve.
- Pressure cook for 30 minutes followed by a 10-minute natural pressure release, release manually the remaining pressure.
- Open and stir the stew. Discard the bay leaves.
Thicken:
- If you want the stew thicker, click again on Saute.
- In a measuring cup mix 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and 1/3 cup water until fully dissolved and add slowly the slurry to the stew, stirring to combine.
Serve:
- Garnish with fresh parsley and serve warm.
Nutrition
Video
