Hi everyone,

Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays. I’ve always loved to cook (because I love to eat even more!) and over the pandemic I have been cooking a lot with the extra time at home. One of my goals for 2021 is to share some of my favourite recipes on my blog. We love using our Instant Pot appliances to cook up different meals and recipes so why not start with our favourite Instant Pot Hong Kong Borscht Soup. The original recipe is by Pressurecookrecipes.com and I’ve modified it to our liking. I’ve listed the ingredients for this recipe as well as the things I used to prep and cook this meal. Scroll all the way to the bottom if you prefer to watch my YouTube video instead!

Ingredients

1.5 – 2 pounds beef back ribs
2 large onions – sliced
3 – 5 yellow or red potatoes – chunks
4 – 6 tomatoes (2 roma + 2 – 4 avalantino) – diced
2 – 4 medium carrots – chunks
4 celery stalks – chunks
4 – 6 garlic cloves – crushed
3 bay leaves
4 cups unsalted chicken / beef / veggie stock
4 full teaspoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 – 2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons corn starch
Salt, black pepper and garlic powder to taste

What I used
Listing out the things I used to prep and cook this meal.

6 qt Instant Pot
Knife – use a good quality one to make the chopping easier
Peeler
Meat Tenderizer – or anything that can smash the garlic cloves
Cutting board
Measuring Cup
Measuring Spoons/Teaspoons
Spatula, tongs and ladle for cooking

Instructions

1. Prep
Prep all veggies and freeze celery, carrot and onion scraps to be made into veggie stock later on.

2. Brown Beef Back Ribs
Set the Instant Pot to Sauté for 25 minutes. Put 2 teaspoons olive oil to coat the pot and let it heat up before adding in the beef back ribs. Season by adding garlic powder, salt and pepper and let the seasoned sides brown. It doesn’t need to be cooked through.

3. Sauté Veggies
Remove the meat and add in sliced onions and crushed garlic and cook for about 3 minutes until it’s soft. Then add in carrot chunks, celery chunks, 1-2 teaspoons of paprika, 4 full teaspoons of tomato paste with 3 bay leaves to the pot and let it cook for another couple of minutes. 

4. Deglaze
Now it’s time to deglaze. Add 1 cup of your stock and scrub the brown bits on the bottom of the pot for good flavour.

5. Pressure Cook
Add in the rest of the stock, diced tomatoes, potato chunks and beef back ribs. Adjust the tomatoes and potatoes if needed to ensure you don’t go over the maximum limit. Give it a good mix before closing the lid and sealing the vent. Set for 12 minutes on Pressure Cook at high and once it’s done do a full natural release for about 30 minutes. If it doesn’t fully release, carefully release the rest of the remaining pressure by venting the steam release handle. Only open when the pot has been depressurized. 

6. Thicken & Season
Once the soup is done, carefully open the lid and turn the setting to Sauté. Mix 2 teaspoons of cornstarch with a little bit of cold water into a thick paste and add it to the soup. This will allow the soup to thicken up. Feel free to add a bit more corn starch or seasoning (paprika/salt/pepper) if it’s still not at the consistency or taste that you like. 

This soup makes about 6 meals for us, so we usually have it for the next couple of days or we freeze it for later. It’s so hearty and delicious. Hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for reading and have a great week.