Keto Beef Stew for a GLP-1 Diet (Low-Carb, No Potato)

Ingredients

Beef:

2 lbs beef chuck cut into 1-inch cubes
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt

Stew:

1 small onion chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
2 medium turnips peeled and cubed
2 tbsp tomato paste
3 cups beef stock
1 tsp dried thyme
1 whole bay leaf

Finish:

1 whole red or orange bell pepper sliced
1 tsp fresh parsley chopped

Thicken:

1 tbsp beef gelatin powder unflavored or Glucomann

Instructions

Pat the beef dry and season it. Toss the cubes with the salt. Dry meat browns. Wet meat steams.
Heat the oil on Sauté and brown the beef in batches. Two or three batches, four to five minutes each. Crowding the pot traps moisture and drops the temperature below browning range, and the beef turns grey instead. Set each batch aside.
Cook the onion and garlic for two minutes. They pick up the browned bits stuck to the bottom.
Stir in the tomato paste and cook one minute. Wait for it to darken and smell sweet. This minute does more for the finished stew than any other step in the recipe.
Press Cancel, then return the beef and add the roots. Turnip, or with a rutabaga, stock, thyme, and the bay leaf. Add a carrot or two now if using them. The bell pepper stays out for now.
Scrape the bottom of the pot clean before sealing. Anything stuck down there will trigger a burn warning once the pressure builds.
Seal the lid, set the valve to Sealing, and cook 25 minutes on High Pressure. The pot takes about 10 minutes to come up to pressure first.
Let it release naturally for 10 minutes, then vent the rest. A fast release now drives moisture out of the meat and tightens it.
Turn Sauté back on, add the bell pepper, and simmer uncovered 5 to 8 minutes. The gravy reduces while the pepper softens and keeps its color. Stir occasionally and pull it when the gravy coats a spoon.
Thicken it now if you want it thicker. Stir the bloomed gelatin in off the boil, or whisk the glucomannan into oil and stir that in. Neither needs more than a minute.
Fish out the bay leaf, rest 5 minutes, and finish with parsley. The stew thickens a little more as it sits off the heat.

Notes

The chuck. Trim the hard outer fat and leave the white seams running through the middle. Those seams are the gravy. Cut the cubes to a consistent inch so they finish together, and pat them dry before they hit the pot. Wet beef boils off its surface water before it browns, and it toughens while it waits.

The turnip and rutabaga. Buy turnips medium sized and a rutabaga that's firm. Peel the rutabaga deep, past the waxy coating supermarkets put on it. It is the same volume in the bowl at a fraction of the carbohydrate.

The bell pepper. Red or orange, and cut it into wide strips rather than dice. Strips hold together in the last five minutes where small pieces go limp. One pepper is right for this pot. Two turns it into a different dish. Use a carrot for a traditional flavor with a few more carbs per serving.

The tomato paste. Check for one ingredient on the label: tomatoes. Salt is fine. Added sugar is not, and it shows up in more brands than it should. Cook the paste in the fat for a full minute before any liquid goes in. Raw paste tastes like raw paste all the way through dinner.

The beef stock. Read this label too. Boxed beef broth often carries sugar, yeast extract, or "natural flavor" doing the work the beef should do. A short ingredient list is the one to buy. Homemade stock works here as well.

Nutrition