Instant Pot Sesame Beef with Zucchini—tender chunks of beef with bites of zucchini in an easy stir fry sauce.
Get the SLOW COOKER sesame beef with zucchini recipe here
Instant Pot Sesame Beef with Zucchini
It’s that time of year when zucchini are popping up in gardens and need to be used up. This is one of my favorite dishes that uses zucchini. (I also really love zucchini linguine.) The zucchini gets slightly cooked but not mushy and the savory sauce envelopes the sliced zucchini.
If you’re growing zucchini make sure to pick those babies every single day or else they’ll grow to the size of a baseball bat and then they don’t taste as good. I love using the smallest zucchinis for this recipe because they taste better and are much more tender. I would suggest using the huge zucchinis for baked goods, like my zucchini banana bread.
What if you don’t like zucchini? Well, lucky for you there are several other vegetables you can use. What about mushrooms? Or green beans? Or broccoli florets? Or even cauliflower? All of these veggies would taste good served with this beef and sauce. Don’t pressure cook these veggies though because they’ll get mushy. You can steam them on the stove or in the microwave. Or add them into the pot after the pressure cooking cycle is through and use the saute setting to cook them.
What did you eat this with? I cooked up a package of ramen noodles and discarded the seasoning packet. It was nice to have a little something to soak up the savory sauce. You can also eat the sesame beef with rice or cauliflower rice.
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What Pressure Cooker Did You Use?
To make Instant Pot Sesame Beef with Zucchini I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*. I love this Instant Pot because it has the yogurt making function which I use almost weekly. It has two pressure settings (high and low), and there are also little slots in the handles so that you can rest the lid there instead of putting it down on your counter-top.
Instant Pot Sesame Beef with Zucchini
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes (plus 10 minute NPR0
- Total Time: 60 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
Tender chunks of beef with bites of zucchini in an easy stir fry sauce.
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp canola oil
- 1 lb beef stew meat or chuck roast cut into bite size pieces
- 1/2 cup chicken broth or beef broth
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp rice vinegar
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp minced garlic
- 1 Tbsp minced ginger
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch + 2 Tbsp cold water
- 2 small zucchinis (I used one green and one yellow), sliced
- 1 Tbsp sesame seeds
Instructions
- Turn your Instant Pot to the saute setting. When the display says HOT add in the oil and swirl it around. Add in the stew meat and brown it for about 5 minutes. Turn it over about halfway through. The pieces of meat should develop color but not necessarily on the entire piece of meat.
- In a bowl stir together the broth, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, garlic and ginger. Pour the mixture over the meat. Deglaze the pot. Turn off the saute setting.
- Cover the pot and secure the lid. Make sure the valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 20 minutes. When the time is up let the pressure release naturally. Then remove the lid.
- Turn the Instant Pot to the saute setting. In a small bowl stir together the water and cornstarch until smooth. Then stir it into the pot to thicken the sauce. Stir in the sliced zucchini. Once the sauce is thickened turn off the saute setting and set the pot to the keep warm function. Cover the pot and let it sit for a few minutes until zucchini is tender.
- Serve the beef, sauce and zucchini with a sprinkling of sesame seeds over the top. You can eat this plain or you can serve it over rice or ramen noodles.
Notes
To make gluten free: use gluten free broth and gluten free soy sauce or tamari
To make low carb: don’t thicken your sauce with the cornstarch
- Category: Beef
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: Asian
*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
Where did I go wrong 🙁 just made this and it was very soupy. Too much liquid somehow. I have no luck with the instantpot. Could be user error.
★★
If I double this, will it still fit in my 6 qt pot, and does it need any time adjustment? I loved it as is, and want to make it for company. (I actually did half again as much on the sauce ingredients, because my husband loves sauces. ANd, I did add mushrooms and some sweet onion.)
Thanks!
Yes! You can double the recipe. Keep the same cooking time.
Thanks so much for your quick reply- and good recipes, Karen!!
Although I could have made a stirfry version in half the time, I would have needed to use a much more expensive cut of meat. The stew beef pieces were very tender using the Instant Pot.
★★★★★
Yes that’s true! Good point!
This was very good. The meat was tender and the sauce added great flavor to the meat and zucchini. Not to mention, it was super easy to make and didn’t take much prep work. I’ll definitely make this again! Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe.
★★★★★
Thanks for sharing! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Hi Karen, I’m on a no-sugar diet. With this recipe and others, could I use the same measure (in this case 1tbsp) of liquid Stevia?
I believe so. I’m not too familiar with sugar substitutes though.
We had this for dinner tonight. Just added sliced mushroom as they needed to be used. This goes into the (make again file). Really happy how easy it was to make and I had everything needed in cupboards.
Awesome! I love the idea of mushrooms 🙂
Made this tonight – it was a good thing my daughter decided to eat with a friend because my husband and I devoured the whole recipe!! Made it exactly like the recipe, but next time think I’ll add some mushrooms with the zucchini!
Love that idea!
This recipe is fast and delicious. But instead of cutting up zucchini/squash I made noodles with my zucchini and prepared them seperately. Then just poured the meat over the noodles and topped it with green onions (all out of sesame seeds). My hubby loved it. I can’t get him to eat zucchini if it gets mushy and this way I didn’t have to worry about that. I am hooked on zucchini noodles.
★★★★★
GREAT idea! I love it!
Can you substitute chicken thighs? Other than time, would I have to adjust anything?
That would be tasty! I wouldn’t adjust anything besides time.
Made it as exactly as written…except I served it over yellow and green zucchini zoodles. Meat was a bit frozen so I cooked it 2 extra minutes and NPR. At the of the cooking and release time I threw two handfuls of fresh spinach in. Stirred and served. Very good. Hubbie had three helpings. 😂
★★★★★
**”At the end of the cooking.” 🤦♀️
Sounds so good! I love the idea of zucchini noodles.
Dinner tonight… Its suppose to cool down to 80 and this will make a nice change of pace.
Love my instant pot summer and winter.
So I am following the recipe exactly except for….lol
Throwing in some onions and broccoli…
★★★★★
you’re like me! you can’t just cook straight from a recipe lol
Can this be assembled and frozen?
Sure, except I wouldn’t freeze the zucchini. It won’t come out well.
I did this and used a bag of frozen stir fry vegetables instead of zucchini when I added the corn starch
Good idea!