This Instant Pot Meat and Potatoes Stew is based on an Albanian recipe for ‘gjelle me mish e patate‘. It’s how my grandparents and parents cooked this beef stew during winter time. Feel free to cook it on the stove top, in Instant Pot, Crockpot or any Pressure Cooker. Just adjust the time and settings according to your device.
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Albanian Beef Stew with Potatoes
This stew is perfect for a fall or winter days. I have plenty of memories of this dish cooking on the top part of our wood stove in the kitchen when I was a child. Now, I do live in Miami and yes we don’t have many cold days here, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t try to adapt to the seasons. I do cook plenty of stews in Winter even if I have to crank the AC in order to have one of my favorite stews:).
Choosing The Best Potatoes
Feel free to choose potatoes of your choice for this stew. I personally have used any potatoes I had home as leftovers from other recipes to cook this dish. However, for best results use honey gold potatoes, fingerling potatoes, small red potatoes etc. Stay away from Russet, Idaho or baking potatoes for stews.
Ingredients, Notes & Best Practices
Most Mediterranean countries, like Albania tend to have seasonal meals. This makes for a certain nostalgia related to food because you can have certain meals only during a month or two, then you move on to others.
Cooking herbs & spices are an essential part of most Mediterranean dishes. If you skim over the ingredient list in the recipe card below, you’ll notice bay leaves, parsley, pepper and paprika. Just their combination with olive oil and onions, makes for a great tasting stew in my opinion, but I guess I’m biased on anything Mediterranean:)
- Whichever device you choose for cooking this dish, make sure to brown the meat first. Hopefully, your cooking appliance has an option like Saute or Brown. If not, you can perform this step using a skillet in the stove top.
- Bone or No Bone? – I want to share some options on the meat and broth part. I personally prefer to use meat with some veins and fat in it, if one of the pieces has some bone, even better. Sometimes when my grocery store sells beef bone, I buy a small piece and a package of beef chunks. If you manage to get both the chunks and the bone, you don’t need beef broth. However, if you could only get the beef and no bone, use some beef broth for this beef & potatoes stew!!
Here are some step by step pictures I took while cooking this recipe, hope it helps clarify the instructions below.
Saute beef chunks in olive oil, make sure you brown the meat on both sides.
Then proceed by adding diced onions. Once onions have started to become translucent, then add carrots and bell pepper.
Finally add seasonings, bay leaves, tomato sauce (or crushed tomatoes), beef stock and mix well. Add potatoes too. Cook on high in Meat/Poultry setting for 40 minutes.
Pressure Cooker Mediterranean Meat and Potatoes Stew
Equipment
- 1 Pressure cooker (or Instant Pot)
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs beef chunks veined and fat is ok
- 4 tbsps olive oil
- 2 small yellow onions (or 1 medium size)
- 1 bell pepper optional
- 3 carrots
- 1 lb potatoes
- 2 cups beef stock or 1 piece of beef bone
- 1 can crushed tomatoes or 4 fresh soft tomatoes
- 2 leaves bay leaves
- 1 tsp dry thyme
- 0.5 tsp paprika
- 0.5 tbsp sea salt adjust to taste
- 0.5 tbsp pepper
- 3 tbsps parsley chopped, fresh, for garnishing
Instructions
- Season beef with salt and pepper, reserve the rest of salt and pepper for later. Brown meat chunks in olive oil in the pressure cooker using the saute function.
- Add chopped onions and saute until onions become translucent. Add bell pepper and carrots, continue sauteing.
- At this point, add 2 cups of beef stock (if adding a bone instead of stock, then add 2 cups of water with the bone in) . Add the blended tomatoes or tomato sauce, laurel leaves, potatoes and all the other seasonings. Add the remaining salt and pepper too. Stir well. Close the pressure cooker and pressurize.
- Cook on Meat/Stew or Meat/Poultry setting on high for 40 minutes. Adjust settings accordingly to your device if you are not using Instant Pot. Once done, let steam release slowly and naturally which takes about 10 minutes. Always follow instructions for safely opening the lid of your appliance.
- Meat at this point should be soft enough so it can be pierced with a fork. Taste for salt and add more if needed.
- If you like the stew to be thick, you can smash a few of the potatoes against the side of the pot, mix well and it will thicken the stew.
- Serve in favorite plate setting, garnish with parsley.
Video
Notes
- Cooking time – even though I suggest cooking this stew for about 40 minutes, please add extra time to your dinner plans for allowing the pressure cooker to pressurize (it takes about 5 minutes more or less). Also, allow about 10 extra minutes for natural release of pressure/steam valve.
- Cooking the same stew in stove top takes about 1hr and 15 minutes and in crockpot about 8 hrs.
- Estimated nutritional info (per serving) – 373 calories, 22 g of Total Fat, 20 g Total Carbohydrates (5 g Dietary Fiber), 25 g Protein
Nutrition Label
Nutrition
If you would like to save this Instant Pot Meat and Potatoes recipe for later, please pin the below image to Pinterest. Feel free to contact me with questions in the comments below or in social media, or tag me with pictures if you made the recipe (#mediterraneanlatinloveaffair).
Instagram: mediterranean_latin_love or Facebook: Mediterranean Latin Love Affair.
Other Mediterranean Soups / Stews Recipes (Gjelle Shqiptare)
- Green Peas Stew (Gjelle Me Bizele)
- Green Beans Soup (Gjelle Me Mashurka)
- Chicken Lemon Soup (Supe Pule)
Update: Post was initially posted October 2018 and updated with new pictures in January 2020.
Scarlet | Family Focus Blog
Mmm. That looks like the perfect comfort food! And your meat and potatoes stew looks so fresh and pretty. I Can’t wait to try this instant pot recipe.
Lana
I just got me an Instant pot! I can’t wait to try this!!
Sonila
It’s so easy!!! You’ll love it. Be careful with the IP valve and releasing steam properly, other than that it makes for easy dinners.
Jennifer
I absolutely love stew and soup during the colder months! I’m the only one in the family who loves them though. So I rarely make it—I am definitely trying this!
Juna Kandha
Wow .. ..
Yummy …. i want to test the recipes once .
Ai | The Wise Budget
This looks fantastic! I have to try this!
Puja
This sounds interesting. I am sure if beef is replaced by other meats it still tastes good. Will try
admin
Yes, it can be made vegetarian too. Don’t include the meat and add a bit more oil.
shannon
I have to try this! These easy meals are great for people like me that lead such a busy life!
Lili Mila
Love the recipe. I will definitely try a vegan version of this meal.
Chaulet Benjamin
Wow it looks so good! Nice pictures. Traditional food is always the best since it has been perfected for generation!
Ben
admin
Thank you so much!! Yes, I’m trying to remember all the recipes that my grandparents cooked so i can leave these details for my kids when they grow up.
blair villanueva
Thanks for sharing your recipe. It’s monsoon season here and having this meal would be a perfect company.
Kristina @ Spirit of the soul
This looks great! Easy to make during the week for the family too.
Mane
Wow!! I love to try this recipe! Looks yummy!
Bobbie Yvette Welch
I love stews in the fall and winter. And the browning of the beef, adds another layer of flavor and thickness to the broth. Thanks for sharing.
Sonila
Thank you so much!!! I appreciate it:)
evelyn hernandez
Crock pots are life savers. We use ours almost every day. This recipe looks amazing too.
Jennifer Dagi
Yummy… I love potatoes and beef stew; it’s so easy to prepare!
Veronica Steigerwald
Whenever I get a crockpot, this will be one of my first recipes- good twist on such a classic meal
Jeferson
I like taking stew during winter…… My comfort food….
Preeti Chauhan
I love pot meals specially for this season , no only because they are easy but also because they are so comforting in this weather.
Ellen
Love meat and potato stew! Now Im really hungry to make some.
maysz
Wow this Pot Meat and Potatoes Stew looks yummy and easy to made I would love to make my own version of this dish! thanks for sharing.
Sonila
Go for it, i always modify recipes too!!
Madison
What a delightful recipe. Perfect for this time of year. I will be sure to bookmark it! Thank you!
Nina Nichols
We are going on a camping so this looks really good to try on! I love stew and this instant pot meat and potatoes seem perfect for this cold weather.
Sonila
Thank you Nina!!
Lauren
This looks and sounds delicious! I can’t wait to try this recipe!
This is Brii
Looks so delicious, def trying this recipe!
Ritika Sharma
Your recipe has certainly made my life easier! My mom is gonna love this. Will let you know once I Try this at home 🙂
Katherine Fraser
Yum, I’ll have to try this!