Inside Scoop: Juicy, tender and flavourful pressure cooked short ribs made in under an hour with the Crock-Pot® Express Pressure Cooker.
Short ribs aren’t typically something we cook.
You definitely don’t see a lot of beef on this platform, and there’s a reason for that, however, on occasion we like to treat ourselves with a nice grass-fed steak or burger. And something that’s truly a treat is cooking short-ribs for friends and family, or for a nice sit down dinner.
Health Benefits of Short Ribs
Beef ribs aren’t really something that screams healthy when you think about them. But, what a lot of those health blogs that focus on plant-based living don’t tell you is that beef is an excellent source of many beneficial nutrients.
Short ribs don’t contain many more calories than beef tenderloin, which is considered a leaner cut of beef. However, beef short ribs are a higher-fat content cut of beef. Having a high animal-based saturated fat diet can increase your risk of heart disease and can increase your HDL cholesterol levels, but fat is also a necessity for brain-health, hormone production and energy.
When it comes to animal-based saturated fat our biggest suggestion is balance. And last, short ribs contain an adequate amount of protein and plenty minerals such as iron, zinc, selenium and B12.
It’s also important to remember that absorbing certain vitamins and minerals through a plant-based diet, such as iron and B12, is much more difficult and often ends up requiring supplementation.
WHY PRESSURE-COOKED SHORT RIBS MAKE AN EASY FANCY DINNER
We always think of short ribs as being kind of a ‘fancy’ dinner. Mostly because it’s such a succulent dish, and often times getting a high-quality sourced rib can be pricey. But, aside from the price point there has always been one thing holding us back from making braised short ribs, and that’s the length of time they take to cook.
Braising simply means submerging the protein in liquid and slow and low cooking for hours. But, our simple method of cooking short ribs will save you time, energy, clean up and is really easy to do.
Our method is to simply make pressure cooked short ribs!
Crock-Pot® Express Pressure Cooker Has it all
Ever since we got our hands on the Crock-Pot® Express Pressure Cooker (and yes we both have one), we have been obsessed. Using a pressure cooker makes mealtime SO easy, especially in the cooler months when you want cooked foods such as soups and stews.
There are so many functions of the Crock-Pot Express Pressure Cooker that makes making these pressure-cooked short ribs so easy, for example:
1) Sauté function – instead of using a skillet and heating up your stove-top to brown your meat, you can simply start your entire cooking process with the Crock-Pot Express Pressure Cooker sauté function. You can brown meat, sauté onions, keep your soup warm, and so many other options with this function.
2) Quick cook time – with conventional cooking method of short ribs you can expect to be simmering your food for hours, but with the Crock-Pot Express Pressure Cooker the cook time for short ribs is around 40 minutes total. That removes hours from your day of monitoring your food and having the stove on!
3) No heat variations – with an oven it can be easy to overcook, undercook or have uneven cooked surfaces. The Crock-Pot Express Pressure Cooker works by bringing your food up to a pressure and steaming it within that pressure, so everything is cooked at an even temperature. All you have to do is set it and walk away.
BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL
The 6 QT Crock-Pot Express Crock is the feature of the week at Walmart Canada with rollback pricing at $59.88! Get yours here.
We are so excited to pass on the recipe for these pressure-cooked short ribs. It makes creating a nice treat easy by allowing you to do everything right there in your Crock-Pot Express Pressure Cooker.
And, like we said… we love the Crock-Pot Express Pressure Cooker and have developed some other delicious dinner recipes, like our Pineapple Jerk Chicken, which you can find here.
Disclaimer: This post was developed in a paid partnership with the Crock-Pot brand. All partnerships we promote align with our core nutrition values and teachings. And, all opinions in this post are genuine. You can find more about our NN Approved Healthy Brands here.
Crock-Pot Express Pressure-Cooked Balsamic Short Ribs with Cauliflower Mash (Paleo)
Ingredients
For the short ribs
- 2-3 lbs short ribs bone-in
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion sliced lengthwise
- 6 cloves garlic minced
- 4 large carrots chopped into 1” pieces
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste
- 2.5 cups beef broth
- 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1 sprig thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 Tbsp Italian seasoning
- 2 tsp arrowroot powder
- 3 Tbsp water
For the cauliflower puree
- 1 head cauliflower chopped into pieces
- 1 Tbsp grass-fed butter ghee or coconut oil
- 1/4 cup nut milk or up 1/2 cup
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Directions
- Season the short ribs with 1/2 tsp both salt and pepper.
- Prep your vegetables and set them aside.
- Turn your Crock-Pot® Express pressure cooker on the sauté function, with the lid off. Wait 1-2 minutes until it heats up and then brown your ribs in batches by cooking them for about 1 minute on each side. Once through your batch, set aside.
- Keep the sauté function on and add your onions to the pressure cooker. Cook for about 7-8 minutes, until translucent and soft.
- Add your garlic and tomato paste and stir to combine.
- Then add the broth, balsamic vinegar, thyme, bay leaf and Italian seasoning.
- Cook for about 6-7 minutes until the liquid has reduced about 25%. Once the liquid has reduced, add your short ribs back into the Crock-Pot® Express pressure cooker, not fully submerging them in liquid, but try to ensure each are covered.
- Close the lid in the lock position and close the pressure valve. Set the function to steam and turn it on for 40 minutes.
- Once cooked, release the pressure valve. Open the lid and add the carrots in.
- Close the lid in lock position, close the pressure valve and cook for another 7 minutes.
- Release pressure open the lid and turn the pressure cooker off.
- While the short ribs are cooking, prepare your cauliflower mash.
- Steam the cauliflower for about 10 minutes, until soft.
- Once soft, add to a high-powered blender along with the coconut oil, milk, salt and pepper. Blend until smooth and creamy.
- If there isn’t enough liquid, add 1 Tbsp at a time until desired consistency.
- Once everything is ready, remove the short ribs and vegetables from the crock pot and mix together (in a small cup) the water and arrowroot powder.
- Turn the sauté function back on and then add the arrowroot mixture to the liquid and cook until thickened.
- Portion the short ribs out with the vegetables and mashed cauliflower. Pour liquid gravy on top. Serve immediately.
How much longer would you cook this in a slow cooker?
Hi Judy, though I’ve never cooked this recipe in a slow cooker before, it generally takes about 8-10 hours on low in your slow cooker. I would give it the whole day, or overnight and you will know they are done when they fall off the bone.
Wow! We accidentally defrosted the short ribs (Mistaked it from ribeye) and panicked a little bit: how could we cook this in time? We found your recipe and are impressed by the CPE!
Thanks for sharing,
Greetings from Holland!
Love it! Thanks for checking out our recipe. We need to make this again soon!