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Talk about a soup to cozy up with on a cold day!!!! This Instant Pot Lamb Stew pushes all the right buttons: hearty, cozy, deep in flavor, and the perfect leftovers.
It’s no surprise that I absolutely love the flavor of lamb meat. It has a distinctive taste that regular beef just doesn’t have and makes any dish immediately taste more elevated and unique, in my opinion. This Instant Pot Lamb Stew has such a beautiful combination of flavor to make it rich and comforting: red wine, a little tomato, lots of herbs, some veggies and of course the star of the show: the lamb.
If you are a stew person, this is one to put on the top of your list to try. It’s just so dang fabulous!
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For more crockpot and Instant Pot recipes, check out this recipe round-up.
Instant Pot Lamb Stew
Ingredients
- 1 lb lamb stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes (shoulder or leg meat works great) (you can also sub beef here)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tbsp arrowroot flour (you can sub tapioca or regular flour here, too)
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cup carrots, sliced diagonally about 1/2 inch thick (or 2 large carrots)
- 1/2 cup celery, diced large (or 1 stalk)
- 3/4 cup yellow onion, diced (or 1/2 medium onion)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 tsp chili flakes (optional)
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 cup red wine
- 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves (4-5 sprigs)
- 2 cups russet potato, peeled and chopped into 1-inch cubes
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cup beef broth + 1/4 cup
- 1/2 tsp freshly chopped rosemary leaves (about 1 sprig)
Instructions
- Pat dry the cubed lamb meat and place in a large bowl with the salt, pepper, and 1 tablespoon arrowroot flour. Toss until evenly coated.
- Turn the Instant Pot on the sauté function with olive oil. When hot, in batches, sear the lamb meat until golden brown on all sides. About 2-3 minutes per side. Set browned meat aside and continue cooking until all meat is finished cooking.
- Add garlic, celery, carrot, onion and chili flakes (optional) to the Instant Pot (still on sauté function). Stir and sauté the veggies until softened, scraping any of the brown edges from the pot. About 3 minutes.
- Once vegetables are softened, add tomato past. Stir until veggies are coated. Add red wine and stir, scraping brown bits from bottom.
- Add the potato, lamb (plus any of its juices), thyme, rosemary, bay leaf and beef broth into the pot.
- Securely fasten the lid on top of the Instant Pot. Hit the cancel button then hit the meat/stew function. Lower the time to 40 minutes.
- When the cook time has complete, hit the 'cancel' button and release the pressure in the Instant pot manually by carefully turning the valve to "venting". Let vent until all the steam has released and carefully remove the lid.
- Turn the instant pot back onto the 'sauté' function. Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine the remaining 1 tablespoon of the arrowroot with the remaining 1/4 cup of beef broth. Whisk until the arrowroot has dissolved in the liquid, making a "slurry" that will help thicken the soup.
- With the sauté function on and while stirring, slowly pour the slurry into the soup, stirring, until the soup has thickened, about 2 minutes.
Notes
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This is my go-to beef stew for a cold night. Very easy to put together on a weeknight. I also find it to be a great dinner to take to a friend for a pick me up. Just take a nice loaf a bread and they are go to go!
Would this be ok to make ahead of time and freeze?
Yes! would work very well to freeze!
Very tasty. I made some alterations to the recipe.
First I sautéed some florets of cauliflower until slightly browned, removed this.
Next I sautéed some bacon before adding the lamb, cooked until browned then removed it.
I then added the vedge and the stock. Instead of red wine I used Guinness Porter, lamb returned and one pot turned to high and cooked for about 10 minutes.
When this was finished I added a thickener and returned the cauliflower to the stew. I turned back to sauté for a few minutes to finish cooking the cauliflower.
The idea of this is to keep the cauliflower with a bit of a crunch while all the other vedge is cooked.
Very tasty.
Absolutely delicious! Cut the lamb into smaller pieces though as I like it super tender, but this was a simple and extremely tasty meal to whack in the instant pot.
So glad you loved it!
I love this recipe!! I want to make a double batch and my Dutch oven pot is a better size, I’m assuming this could be done one the stovetop? How hot and long would you cook it for? Thank you!!
Hi Danielle!
Im sure it would be great stovetop! I would get it so that it’s lightly simmering (so medium-low/low heat) covered until very tender, I would think 1 1/2 hours or so!
Made it proportionately larger in my 8 qt instant pot tonight for dinner and it was so delicious! I used a dry cabernet merlot and substituted fennel rather than celery as my daughter is unable to eat celery. A perfect harmony of flavours, this will be requested again for sure!
For the larger serving, did you have to increase the cooking time and the liquid amount?
Making this tonight, sounds delish! Looks the crockpot instructions left off the rosemary. I just added it in with everything else! Is that correct?
not enough fluids, needs a lot more broth…
Made tonight with beef and it was so delicious!!!! Warning to let it cool significantly after cooking it in the IP! Can’t wait to make it again.
Awesome. Added parsnips, no need to chop the rosemary and thyme – just threw in the whole sprig. Used small potatoes and did not peel. Very good stew. I doubled it and it fit in a 6 qt instant pot.
Yum! We loved the flavor of this stew. I left out the potatoes, doubled the carrots and then served it with mashed potatoes with parsley. We had tried lamb stew this way in Sun Valley, Idaho and this was almost as good!