Potatoes, Green Beans, and Ham Hot Dish in the Instant Pot

Karin Kallmaker Cheers & Chocolate, Favorite Things 5 Comments

I don’t really focus on recipe blogs (here’s one for delectable oatmeal chocolate cherry cookies, though, you’re welcome) but every time I make this dish I take a picture as if that somehow will preserve the sheer deliciousness of it. Then I can’t help but post that picture and then someone asks for the recipe. This was one of my first Instant Pot dishes, and I recommend it for instapot beginners – it’s darned near foolproof. Also, if you have a vegetarian option for the salty smokey flavors usually found in ham, it’ll probably turn out great.

The Wonderfully Flexible Lotsa Veg Hot Dish

Prep time – About 15 minutes or so.
Pressure time – 5 minutes
Total cook time – About 30 minutes
Serves 3-4 people

Ingredients, Usually

  • 1/2 medium onion, diced
  • 1 pound green beans, trimmed and snapped to your liking
  • 1 to 1.5 pounds potatoes, washed and cut down to comfortable mouth size bites
  • 1.5 to 2 cups cooked ham (see below for substitutes), cubed or broken down to bite size
  • 1.5 cups stock, chicken or vegetable
  • 1/2 tsp each salt and black pepper, added to the stock (or you can wait and let individuals do it at the table)
  • 1/2 tsp liquid smoke, added to the stock (less if your meat already has a good smoke flavor to it). Don’t have any? If you’ve got smoked sea salt, use that instead of the regular salt above.
  • 1/2 tsp each mustard seed, caraway seed, and fennel seed, in a tea infuser (or coffee filter stapled shut). This seed blend is also my go-to when cooking dry beans in the instant pot. They make the beans taste as if they grew in a sunny garden alongside other fresh things.

Meat Substitutions

Everyone here likes a low-fat turkey kielbasa sausage nearly as much. I’ve also used corned beef, which was super salty so use less and avoid any other salt source. Any vegetarian or vegan protein that was salty and smoky should work. If whatever you use isn’t a smoky as ham, consider upping the liquid smoke to 1 teaspoon.

This recipe is so simple (and inexpensive) that you’ll make it more than once and have chances to fine tune and play. If you’re starting with a raw meat, such as ham shanks, check out this ultra classic recipe. It was the first one I used, skipping step 1 because I’m just too lazy to find ham shanks.

Mise-en-Place

Dice, cut, and measure the various ingredients. Since I’m not fond of seeds and slivers, I put those items in a tea infuser that I drop on top before closing up the machine. Don’t have an infuser? A coffee filter will work – fill and loosely twist or staple shut.

When it comes to the herbs and seeds, your own preferences matter. Don’t like fennel? Try cumin seed instead. If you prefer red pepper flakes to black pepper, go for it. Dill or rosemary do it for you? Yum! If you can’t conceive a dish like this without garlic, then go right ahead and crush a clove or two.

You’re about to put everything in your Insta and cook it, cook it good. The flavors will dissolve into each other and meld. It’s not precise – this is comfort food! If you have more or less of one thing that’s okay. The picture above I didn’t have enough green beans so I diced up some carrots too. I also had celery stalks on hand and thought what the heck, so they got diced up and thrown in.

Feeling fancy? Caramelize the onions first with the saute feature, and use beef stock and red wine instead of chicken stock, then you’re heading into French Onion territory – very nice, for a change. (You could also make the quickest, easiest bread to enjoy with it.)

Load up the Instant Pot

  1. If you have a fancy model of instapot, you can use the Saute feature to cook the onions and your herbs a bit first and deglaze with a splash of red wine. Or not.
  2. Put in half of the onion, green beans, potatoes, and meat, kinda in layers.
  3. Put in the other half. You can’t do it wrong.
  4. Pour over the stock that already has the liquid smoke, salt and pepper stirred into it.
  5. Put the tea infuser or coffee filter with the herbs right on top.
  6. Check that the sealing ring is correctly in place. I mention this because I’ve not put the sealing ring in a couple of times.
  7. Lock it up and make sure the vent is set to “Seal”
  8. Press Manual and set for 5 minutes.

After the Cooking

  • If you want super soft taters, let it natural release for 5 minutes.
  • Otherwise, quick release.
  • Fish out the coffee filter or infuser and gently stir.
  • Spear a piece of ham before anyone catches you. I mean, err, perform quality control tasting.
  • Serve.

One of my favorite things about this dish, after the flavor and how easy it is to make, is that as it cools the broth is reabsorbed into everything, making every bite increasing succulent. We use spoons. You do you.

About Nutrition

There’s a lot of variation possible, so I have only a rough estimate of the nutrition. Served to 3 people who like to eat, then it’s about 350 calories per person for what’s in the picture plus that much half again. Which ain’t much for a super comforting, warming chilly day dish that’s low in fat and makes the house smell like childhood.

Other Recipes I Love

This is not a recipe blog, and I’m not trying to monetize your eyeballs. I only do a recipe when I really, and I mean REALLY, love the result. Check out my Cheery Cherry Oatmeal and Dark Chocolate Cookies, they’re worth it.

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