Instant Pot ropa vieja
Tender shredded beef in a garlicky tomato and pepper sauce, Cuba’s national dish, with white rice and sweet caramelized plantains.
- 100 min total
- 35 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 6
- About $3.87 a serving
- 680 calories
- Good the next day
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 6 servings.
- 2 lb chuck roast, cut into 4 chunks
- 1 yellow onion, sliced
- 1 green bell pepper, sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 can tomato sauce
- ½ cup beef broth
- 2 cups long-grain white rice
- 2 plantains, very ripe, with black skins
From your pantry
- 2 tsp salt, divided
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil, divided
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 3 cups water
Each serving has about 680 calories, 36 g protein, 77 g carbs and 26 g fat, and costs about $3.87 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No green bell peppers? Yellow bell peppers work.
- No red bell peppers? Yellow bell peppers work.
- No tomato sauce? Crushed tomatoes work.
- No beef broth? Bone broth works.
- No long-grain white rice? Jasmine rice or basmati rice works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the beef with 1½ tsp of the salt, the pepper, cumin and oregano.
Season. Seasoning means adding salt, pepper or spices to bring out a food’s flavor. A little at a few stages tastes better than a lot all at the end.
How you’ll know: When you taste it, it tastes bright and like itself, not flat and not salty.
Set the Instant Pot to sauté, add 1 tbsp of the oil, and the beef 3 minutes a side, in batches. Move it to a plate.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Timer: 6 min
Add the onion and peppers and cook 4 minutes, stirring, until they start to . Stir in the garlic for 30 seconds.
Softened. For vegetables it means cooked until they bend and lose their crunch; for butter, left out until it dents easily. Soft onions taste sweet, and soft butter mixes in smoothly.
How you’ll know: Onions squash easily against the pan with your spoon, and butter dents under a finger without looking greasy.
Timer: 4 min
Pour in the tomato sauce and broth, , then return the beef and tuck in the bay leaves.
Scrape up the browned bits. It means loosening the brown bits stuck to the pan with a wooden spoon, usually right after adding liquid. Those bits are concentrated flavor, and they melt into the sauce.
How you’ll know: The bottom of the pan looks clean again, and the liquid turns darker and richer.
Dolly’s tip: Scrape the bottom clean. Stuck bits can set off the burn warning.Lock the lid and cook on high pressure 55 minutes, then let the pressure come down on its own for 15 minutes before releasing the rest.
Timer: 55 min
Meanwhile, bring the rice, water and the rest of the salt in a .
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
Saucepan. A saucepan is a pot with tall, straight sides and one long handle. It’s for things that need depth, like rice, sauces or a few boiled eggs.
How you’ll know: The food fills it about halfway, leaving room to bubble without spilling over.
High heat
Cover, turn the heat to low, and cook 18 minutes.
Low heatTimer: 18 min
the beef right in the pot with two forks, throw away the bay leaves, stir in the vinegar, and on sauté 5 minutes, until the sauce .
Shred. Shredding means making thin strips, either on the big holes of a grater or by pulling cooked meat apart with two forks. Shreds soak up sauce and mix evenly through a dish.
How you’ll know: Cooked chicken pulls apart into strands with little effort, and cheese comes off in long, loose strips.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Thicken. Thickening means cooking a sauce or soup until it’s less runny, by simmering it down or adding something like cornstarch. A thicker sauce clings to food instead of pooling on the plate.
How you’ll know: It coats the back of a spoon, and a line drawn through it with your finger holds its shape.
Timer: 5 min
Food safety: Steak, pork chops and other whole cuts are safe at 145°F in the middle, then let them rest for 3 minutes before cutting.
Peel the plantains, slice them on an angle ½ inch thick, and fry them in the rest of the oil in a over medium, 2 to 3 minutes a side, until deep and .
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Caramelize. Caramelizing means cooking slowly until the natural sugars turn deep golden brown. It turns sharp onions soft, jammy and sweet, and it often takes 30 minutes or more.
How you’ll know: They’re soft, sticky and amber brown, and they taste sweet rather than sharp.
Medium heatTimer: 5 min
Dolly’s tip: The blacker the skin, the sweeter the plantain. Yellow ones taste starchy, like a potato.Serve the ropa vieja over the rice with the plantains on the side.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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