Video Instant Pot Mediterranean Lamb Stew

Beef usually hogs the spotlight when it comes to stews, but there are plenty of other meats that can star in this quintessential cold weather comfort food. Pork, chicken, and here, lamb, a big favorite of my younger son Charlie.

This rich meat also takes very well to many kinds of flavor combos, and here some very accessible Mediterranean-inspired supporting ingredients turn the lamb into a truly delicious stew. If you are a chickpea lover, feel free to add a second can.

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Making the Instant Pot Mediterranean Lamb Stew

The recipe below has instructions for making the lamb stew in an Instant Pot, which is clearly THE appliance of the decade. The Instant Pot is a plug-in pot that performs as a slow cooker, a pressure cooker, a rice cooker, a yogurt maker and a few other impressive cooking tools. In this case you will first be utilizing the sauté function, then the pressure cooker function to cook a tender stew in much less time than it would take otherwise. An instant pot stew is a beautiful thing.

This Instant Pot Mediterranean Lamb Stew recipe is lush and homey, exactly what you want to see bubbling away on a cold winter night.

Making the Stew in a Slow Cooker

Don’t have an Instant Pot? You can also make this Mediterranean Lamb Stew in a slow cooker or a crock pot, and a slow cooker lamb stew is also a beautiful thing…..just brown the meat in the slow cooker if it has a sauté function first. Or, if not, brown it and sauté the vegetables in a pot on the stove, then transfer everything to the slow cooker with the rest of the ingredients and cook on low for 8 hours.

Making the Stew on the Stove

If you don’t have an Instant Pot or a slow cooker, no worries! You can do all of the sautéing in a pot on the stove, and then add the other ingredients as directed and cook the stew, covered, over low heat for about 3 hours until the meat is tender. Give it an occasional stir to make sure the stew doesn’t stick to the bottom. If you prefer to put it into a 300° F oven after all of the ingredients have been combined, that works, too—this should also take about 3 hours. Give that a stir if you think of it every once in a while.

If you don’t have brandy you are good to add a healthy glug of red wine instead. This Instant Pot Mediterranean Lamb Stew is a soupy stew, and would be fantastic ladled over noodles of any kind, or chunks of steamed potatoes. Don’t forge the final sprinkle of parsley, it really perks up the earthiness of the stew. A simple salad is all you need to complete this comfort meal.

So, whether you approach this lamb stew recipe old school style, new school, or somewhere in the middle, the cooler days approaching promise to be very flavorful.