Make this delicious Instant Pot Bo Kho recipe for a hearty and fragrant soup! Cook all the ingredients for this Vietnamese beef stew all at once for a simple and hearty meal.
What makes this Bo Kho So Good?
This is a recipe for Instant Pot Bo Kho, a delicious and filling Vietnamese stew that is bursting with tender stew meat, delicious veggies, and oh so much flavor.
This easy one-pot recipe is a low-carb spicy beef stew that is a hearty, fragrant soup made of beef, turnips, star anise, 5-spice powder, and curry powder. My whole house smelled amazing as this cooked!
What makes my Bo Kho recipe different from the other pressure cooker recipes out there is that, not only is it a one-step recipe where the beef and the vegetables cook at the same time, but I also made it low carb. I also used pot-in-pot cooking to slow down the cooking of the vegetables.
How To Make This Spicy Beef Stew
- Add stew ingredients. In the inner liner of your Instant Pot or electric pressure cooker, place all ingredients for the stew.
- Add veggies. In a smaller, heatproof container, place the carrots, turnip, and water. Place a steamer rack on top of the meat and spices. Place the vegetable pot on top of the steamer rack.
- Cook. Cook on high pressure for 15 minutes. Let's release pressure naturally for 10 minutes, and then release the remaining pressure.
- Stir and serve. Remove vegetables and cut smaller if desired, and add back into the stew.
What's In Bo Kho?
A traditional Bo Kho recipe is made with beef, some vegetables, tomato paste, lemongrass, star anise, ginger, garlic, and some delightful Vietnamese spices.
Traditionally the recipe calls for potatoes and carrots, but I substituted turnips instead of potatoes and it actually tasted really good! This made this Vietnamese beef stew keto-friendly without compromising on flavor.
Is There Really Curry Powder In A Twosleevers Recipe?
But before we go too far, Curry Powder? Since when do I use Curry Powder? Now you guys know I never use curry powder in my Indian curries.
But Vietnamese Bo Kho asks for curry powder, so I figured this was as good a recipe as any to give it a try.
There are so many different aromatics in this Bo Kho, that it's hard to know what adds the most flavor. Honestly, it doesn't matter whether it was the onions, ginger, garlic, 5-Spice powder, star anise, curry powder, or something else--because really I think it was all of it working together.
Have Left Over Stew Meat? Make These Recipes!
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- Instant Pot Keto Beef Stroganoff - This recipe might be the best beef stroganoff you've ever had!
- Instant Pot Caldo De Res-Real Mexican beef soup flavor in less than an hour.
- Instant Pot Indian Beef Curry - Tender, delicious and makes an awesome meal.
Trust me, you're going to fall in love with this Bo Kho recipe. Make sure to share this recipe with your friends on Pinterest and Facebook so they can enjoy it as well!
Equipment
Ingredients
In the Inner Liner of the Pressure cooker:
- 1 (1) Onion
- 1 pound (453.59 g) Beef Stew Meat
- 2 tablespoons (2 tablespoons) Tomato Paste
- 2 whole (2 whole) star anise
- 1 tablespoon (1 tablespoon) lemongrass paste
- 1 tablespoon (1 tablespoon) Minced Ginger
- 1 tablespoon (1 tablespoon) Minced Garlic
- 1.5 cups (375 g) Water
- .5 cups (120 g) Coconut Water
- 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Ground Black Pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) Chinese 5 spice powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) Curry Powder
In a smaller pot inside the inner liner:
- 1 (1) Turnip, chopped into quarters
- 2 (2) Carrots, chopped into large thick chunks
- 1/4 cup (32 g) Water
Instructions
- In the inner liner of your Instant Pot or electric pressure cooker, place all ingredients for the stew.
- In a smaller, heatproof container, place the carrots, turnip, and water.
- Place a steamer rack on top of the meat and spices.
- Place the vegetable pot on top of the steamer rack.
- Cook on high pressure for 15 minutes. Let is release pressure naturally for 10 minutes, and then release remaining pressure.
- Remove vegetables and cut smaller if desired, and add back into the stew.
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Nutrition
Originally published July 2017
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Nan
I am looking forward to trying this recipe. Can I use a Corelle bowl or an Anchor glass bowl for the heat proof container for the vegetables or does it need to be metal? Thanks. I love your recipes.
AshleyThompson
As long as the bowl is oven safe, it's ok to use!
Leslie Atkinson
This is the best beef stew I've ever had. Its got all the flavour elements I love with regular beef stew, but with another whole layer of awesomeness. The only changes I made was to double the recipe (I had to use my 8qt), slightly reduce the amount of potatoes, carrots and turnip so they would fit, and use beef broth instead of water. I would serve this to guests. It was a big hit at my house!
Anindita Bhattacherjee
Love your recipes! They are just awesome. Can I substitute the beef with chicken or lamb? If so, for how long? Thanks!
Lisa mckenzie
Just wondering how essential the lemongrass. Paste is or if there's a good substitute
URVASHI PITRE
I think you could get by without if you had to honestly
Erin
First off, your recipes are amazing! Question... can I just throw the carrots and turnips into the slow cooker? Do I need to steam them?
URVASHI PITRE
Thank you! No need to pre steam the veggies for sure. Re the slow cooker will take care of all of that.
Erin
So I don't need the steamer rack etc? It's okay if I just throw all the ingredients into the pot?
URVASHI PITRE
If you're slow cooking you won't need steamer rack. Just leave the veggie pieces a decent size so they don't disintegrate 🙂
Erin
But if I pressure cook it like the instructions I'll need to steam them or the veggies will be mush?
URVASHI PITRE
Correct. If you pressure cook, you must elevate them. Did you see the you tube video I posted on Sunday regarding PiP? You might like that. It answers a lot of questions like this about what should be cooked in the inner liner vs elevated etc.
Serena
I'm going to try this, but is the chuck stew meat, even when cut to bite-sized pieces, really tender after only 15 minutes cooking time? I cooked some last night and did 45 minutes and it was wonderful, but I'm a newbie, so I'm open to suggestions.
URVASHI PITRE
I buy bite-sized stew meat, and I always only cook for 20 minutes so I'd definitely start there.