I work full time outside the home and I am always looking for quick and easy recipes, especially with my InstantPot! My friend at Cool Breeze Farm, where we buy our grass fed beef and pork, shared this recipe and I just had to try it, too! I had some with lunch and it is YUMmy! Enjoy!!
I don't subscribe to any special "diets" but this is Paleo and Whole30 approved, if anyone needs to know. :)
On our day "off" together I got my kids, 8 and 11, involved. They are not "helpless" in the kitchen although they are not eager beavers, either. After I gave them some simple directions they were willing to help out with the chopping! I made sure they had sharp knives and tasks that matched their abilities. (Eight-year-old chopped the celery.) We were finished so quickly doing it together!
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons avocado oil
- 1 lb grass fed ground beef or venison
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 large carrots, peeled and sliced
- 2 large celery stalks, sliced
- 1 cup diced yukon gold potatoes (about 3 small)
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 cup frozen green beans
- 1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes
- 3 cups low sodium beef broth
- ½ tablespoon minced garlic
- 2 teaspoons sea salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- Basil Vitality essential oil (1-2 drops)
- Black Pepper Vitality essential oil (1 drop)
Instructions
Set your Instant Pot to Saute. Add oil and beef (or venison) and cook until browned. Add remaining ingredients and stir well to combine. Lock lid and set Instant Pot to Manual for 15 minutes. Quick or Natural Release both work great for this recipe.
Note: Some people feel that adding essential oils to hot liquid will “destroy” the therapeutic benefits. I still believe there are beneficial chemical constituents after heating them; they are just different chemical components. (Check out the quotation below from Pharmacist Dr. Lindsey Elmore.)
People often ask, but aren’t you concerned about changing the chemical composition of essential oils with heat. To me, there is nothing to worry about. Do the chemical constituents change, of course. That is the very essence of cooking. Chemical reactions are the reason that meat turns brown when cooked and why foods soften and transform with cooking. These types of chemical changes don’t make foods or essential oils dangerous, it simply makes them cooked.
Plus, studies have shown that chemical changes are less with essential oils than with the essential oil contained within an herb. So thyme essential oil is less likely than thyme to undergo changes during the cooking process.
So, it is up to you; you may wait to add essential oils until after soup has mostly cooled, or you may add them with all ingredients during cooking.
Adapted from tastythin.com