Instant Pot Piri-Piri Short Ribs with Sweet Potato Fries & Roasted Brussels Sprouts
January 6, 2021
Taste and Tipple
Welcome to Taste & Tipple in 2021! New year, same attitude. I’ll be continuing to serve you quality food and drink content twice weekly, maybe more often if you’re good to me. 😉
This year I’m doing Whole30 again but slightly modified to allow for a quarter ounce of syrup here and there in the zero-proof cocktails I’m serving up on Virtual Happy Hour. It’s genuinely hard to make balanced mocktails without even a touch of sweetener, natural or otherwise.
I stumbled across a Piri-Piri recipe over the holidays and I wanted to try my hand at coming up with a Whole30 meal based on it – something that could get the fall-off-the-bone short ribs texture we all know and love in a fraction of the time with the use of an Instant Pot.
As a quick, high-level recap, Whole30 is an elimination diet designed to help you identify your food sensitivities. It involves eliminating sugar, alcohol, legumes, dairy, soy, and grains for 30 days. You’re left with fruit, vegetables, meat, seafood, and eggs.
I don’t think anyone should change their diet just for the sake of it or because it’s a New Year. I’m doing this because I don’t have the ironclad constitution I wish I had and want to detox my liver after an indulgent December.
I did it last year and it helped me to identify some of my food sensitivities but I’d like to be more intentional with how I reintroduce different food groups this time around so I can get a better handle on things. i want to know what I should avoid or reduce my intake of so I feel better physically.
It also forces me to be a bit more imaginative with how I approach food and flavour. I’m often a bit nonplussed by Brussels sprouts but this recipe has them coming out crispy and delicious.
If you ask me, I’m over here doing the lord’s work giving you ways to eat your veggies that even your kids will be excited about. The secret: dijon aioli, a.k.a vector for mayonnaise (Whole30 compliant as long as you’re using one without sugar, canola oil, or weird additives).
Please don’t be overwhelmed by the number of steps in this recipe – it’s all very simple, you’ll just need to do a small bit of multitasking. The most difficult part of this recipe is cleaning your food processor.
I hope you’ll give this a try and let me know how you like the results. I think the most important step in succeeding at Whole30 is preparation, planning, and making meals that don’t taste like deprivation – and this recipe is packed with flavour!
Instant Pot Piri-Piri Short Ribs with Sweet Potato Fries & Roasted Brussels Sprouts
- 2 lb bone-in beef short ribs
- 1½ large shallots coarsely chopped
- 6 garlic cloves peeled
- 1-2 Scotch bonnet chiles stems removed
- 1 2” piece ginger peeled, coarsely chopped
- 3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 4 tsp paprika
- 2 tsp Kosher salt
- 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 red bell pepper sliced
- 1 cup beef broth
- 2 sweet potatoes sliced into 1/4” sticks
- 1 lb Brussels sprouts halved or quartered if large
- 3 tbsp olive oil divided
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp black pepper freshly ground
- ⅔ cup mayonnaise
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 3 tbsp Dijon Mustard
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1½ tsp lemon juice
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
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Make marinade. Combine shallots, garlic, ginger, and chiles in the small bowl of a food processor. Blend until the mixture is a thick paste. Stir in lemon juice, vegetable oil, paprika and salt
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Spoon half the marinade over the short ribs, coating both sides, and place in a large resealable plastic bag. Refrigerate for one hour.
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Spoon remaining marinade into a medium bowl and stir in red wine vinegar.
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Make Piri-Piri Sauce. Heat 1/2 tbsp olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add sliced red pepper and sauté, stirring and turning frequently, until the skin starts to blister and blacken.
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Reduce heat to medium. Add 1 tbsp of water to the pan and cover. Steam peppers for 1 minute.
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Remove from heat and combine roasted peppers with remaining marinade in a blender. Blend until smooth. Cool Piri-Piri Sauce to room temperature and then refrigerate until ready to use.
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Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Sear Short Ribs. Switch on the Instant Pot to the sauté setting on high. When the instant pot is hot, pour about 2 tbsp of oil. When the oil is hot, working in batches, place 3-4 short ribs in the instant pot to sear – don’t overcrowd. Sear the short ribs on all sides, about 2-3 minutes per side. Remove seared short ribs to a plate.
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Deglaze the bottom of the Instant Pot with 2 tbsp red wine vinegar, scraping up and charred bits on the bottom of the pan. Turn off the Instant Pot.
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Cook Short Ribs. Return seared short ribs to the Instant Pot, top with any excess marinade left in the resealable plastic bag you used to marinate them. Add 1 cup beef broth. Choose the manual high pressure function and set to high. Cook the short ribs for 45 minutes, followed by a 10 – 15 minute natural release.
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Prepare Vegetables. While short ribs are cooking, toss sliced sweet potato with olive oil, salt and pepper, and spread out evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with the Brussels sprouts on a second parchment-lined baking sheet.
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Roast Vegetables. When there are 15 minutes of cook time left on the short ribs, put the sweet potatoes on a rack in the lower third of the oven. Bake for 30 minutes, flipping sweet potato fries halfway and moving to a rack in the top third of the oven.
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Once the sweet potatoes have been in the oven for 10 minutes, pop the Brussels sprouts in the oven – bake for 20 minutes, flipping halfway.
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Make Dijon Aioli. While vegetables are baking, prepare the Dijon aioli. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and stir well.
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Plate and serve. Once vegetables are done, remove short ribs from the Instant Pot and plate – topping with Piri-Piri Sauce. Add sweet potato fries and roasted Brussels sprouts to the plate – drizzle sprouts with dijon aioli and allow guests to add more, as desired.
