February is known for nasty rainy weather. Here is a great Instant Pot venison stew recipe (How did I ever live without this thing?) It takes longer to chop the vegetables than it does for this delicious stew to cook! Please note, if you don’t have or don’t care for venison, you can substitute beef or any other meat. If you are a vegetarian, or even vegan, you can make easy substitutions for this recipe to make it work for you!

Instant Pot Venison Stew

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pound of venison, cubed
Two potatoes, cubed, two or three carrots, peeled and chopped
Two stalks of celery, chopped
One onion, chopped
8 oz can of tomato sauce (or you can use fresh tomatoes or chopped tomatoes)
1 tablespoon each chopped garlic, chopped basil, chopped oregano
2 or 3 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce (3 if you like it, 2 if you don’t, or omit if you really don’t like it.)3 cups beef stock (I used red wine instead.)
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste (I used Uncle Steve’s Shake, which we sell here at the feed store.)
1/2 cup of water
3 or 4 teaspoons corn starch

You can also add hot sauce, crushed red pepper flakes, and other vegetables if you like.

Directions:
Set instant pot to sauté, pour in oil and when it is sizzling, add venison, I pre-seasoned mine with shake. Brown on all sides. Use some of your broth or wine to deglaze pot, load up your vegetables, and all of the other ingredients except the water and cornstarch, set to soup (at least that is what mine was set to), turn it on and cook.

I let it cook all the way, then as soon as the pressure was all released, opened it, mixed water and corn starch together and put it in, mixed it up (it should hopefully still be boiling a little) closed the lid, and set it to warm. You can check it and if you want it thicker, you can add more corn starch. I like a THICK stew, and this Instant Pot venison stew was delicious. You can add additional vegetables of your choosing if you like, too. I used one onion, and chopped it really course, but I will use two next time.