Making a big pot of soup today, using lots of stuff I have on hand. It’s mid-week, so I’m not going to get too fussy or detailed. I just want something warm that’s packed with flavor. As always, I’m filling the pot so I can eat this sirloin soup with vegetables throughout the week.
Having done a lot of cooking over the past few weeks, I have a lot of random vegetables I need to be use up. Don’t want to waste good food, now do we? I also have been getting meat delivery every other month, and I have quite a few steaks in the freezer. A match made in soup heaven! So I’m going to wing it and make a Sirloin Soup with vegetables.
I have learned through cooking with the Instant Pot over the last 6 months to keep a few standard items on hand for just such occasions. You see my cooking and baking falls into two categories: planned meals where I go out and shop for the ingredients I will want to use, and what I like to call ‘the refrigerator method’ where I use whatever I have on hand, without any sort of predetermined recipe. This is one of those meals. Sometimes things go awry, but fortunately more times than not, I come up with something tasty. (Spoiler: this one is tasty!)
Using Frozen Sirloin Steaks
I have a subscription to a Butchers Box of beef and pork from Keller Crafted Meats. They are a local shop that has really high-quality meats. I wanted to sign up for the butcher’s box so I could try out new cuts of meats. Having a nice selection of meats available whenever I feel like cooking is really nice.
My first idea was to use some fajita or stew pre-cut beef, but I didn’t have what I was looking for. I did however have several packages of sirloin steak. Because it was mid-week, and already late in the evening I didn’t have time to pre-thaw them in advance. No problem with the Instant Pot though. I decided to do a short warm-up cook with the frozen steaks alone with beef broth to defrost them. Once they were softened, I could pop them in a frying pan to brown them up.
A friend asked why I didn’t brown them in the IP. In this case, after defrosting the steaks, the pot still had beef broth in it. In addition, I had a large number of steaks, so it was faster to be able to brown them all at once on the stovetop while I kept the broth warm in the pot.
Soup Veggies FTW
While the steaks were thawing I did a quick chop of the veggies I had on hand. I started with the usual celery, carrots, cippolini onions, and garlic. But then I had a rogue element: red cabbage left over from making Corned Beef Reuben Tacos. I have never added cabbage to soup, but it seemed like it should work, so I gave it a whack into bite-sized chunks. If nothing else, it should look colorful! lol
Once the meat is browned I cut it into bite-sized chunks and quick tossed of everything back into the pot. Let it cook in the pressure cooker for 15 minutes and it’s done, and full of flavor. I always let soup come to pressure naturally. Actually, I usually get distracted, and things often stay on the keep warm setting for an extended amount of time until I get back to it. This is absolutely one of my favorite features of the Instant Pot. As opposed to cooking soup on the stove, where you have to keep a constant eye on it.
A Big Pot Of Yum
Opening the Instant Pot is always exciting. But especially when I am winging it! Will everything work the way I hoped? Or will I have added one too many rogue elements? Only one way to tell.
Turns out it’s a really great combination of flavors! The sirloin steaks got fall-apart tender, but still very full of flavor, thanks to the browning. And the red cabbage is a great addition. I’m going to have to add that more often! The diced tomatoes in the broth add another dimension to the soup, and the carrots and celery are cooked to perfection without turning to mush. Hooray!
And the best part is I have a whole big pot to enjoy all week!
Ingredients
- 3 lbs Sirloin steaks frozen or fresh
- 1 carton Beef bone broth
- 4 Carrots
- 4 stalks Celery
- 2 Cipollini onions
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 2 cans Diced tomatoes
- 1/2 head Red cabbage
- 4 Bay leaves fresh or dried
- 1 bunch Parsley fresh
- Salt
- Pepper
Tools
Instructions
- Gather ingredients and tools.
- If you are using frozen steaks, defrost slightly by placing them in the inner pot of your Instant Pot along with the beef bone broth. Cover and close the vent. Cook on manual high pressure for 2 minutes. Carefully quick release when time is up.
- While the meat is defrosting, peel and chop up the carrots, celery, onions, and garlic. I like making similar bite-sized pieces.
- Tie the parsley bunch using kitchen twine. Collect all of your chopped veggies into a large bowl as you go.
- Chop the red cabbage into big chunky pieces.
- When the meat is done thawing, remove it from the pot with tongs, leaving the broth in the pot. Keep the Instant Pot on the warming setting.
- Add some oil to a large frying pan on high heat. Place all of the steaks in the pan at once if they fit without crowding. Let the steaks brown on one side before turning over to brown the other side quickly.Note: use high heat to quickly brown the outsides of the steaks without overcooking the insides.
- Remove the steaks from the heat and cut them into large bite-sized chunks. It’s okay if they are still red inside.
- Using a silicone spatula and a little of the broth from the pot, deglaze the pan to collect all of the browned bits and add it to the broth in the pot.Note: ‘deglazing the pan’ means to use liquid to soften the browned pieces of meat and drippings in the frying pan. These browned bits will add a ton of great flavor to the soup stock! We want every little bit.
- Add the meat, veggies, and herbs into the broth in the pot.
- Pour the diced tomatoes over the meat and veggies. Add some salt and pepper.
- Add water to the pot to cover the contents. Don’t over fill, you need to leave some room for the cabbage.
- Add the cabbage on top of everything.
- Close the lid, shut the vent, and cook on manual, high pressure for 15 minutes. Let the pot naturally pressure release until the pin drops. This will take time because the pot is very full, but don’t rush it.Note: you don’t want to use the valve to release pressure when the pot is full with liquid or it will spray all over your counter!
- When the pin drops, carefully open the lid. Using silicone mitts, remove the liner from the Instant Pot. Take care as it will be heavy and very hot. Set it on a trivet to cool. You should test the soup and adjust seasoning as needed. I tend to go light on the salt when cooking and add more once it is done.Remove the parsley, and bay leaves.
- Use a soup ladle to serve beautiful bowls of soup!
- Let the soup cool completely in the pot liner, then transfer it to a large airtight container to store in the fridge, or you can portion it into small containers to freeze. Enjoy!
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